Parasitology is by a lot of scientists and doctors in the western world considered to be an outpost, an area where you are going to work if you are not too serious about your career. Moreover, all those parasites have completely outlandish names which you could mostly not remember, even if your life depended on it.

Apart from the fact that parasites are really important pathogens in developing countries, they are also coming more and more to the western world as well, with increased travel and worldwide business, so a good reason to know more about them.

The stories in the books from Mr. Desowitz show that parasites are not only an interesting study objects, but that you can write very funny stories about them as well. This is probably one of the best books to get people interested in parasites, namely wrting stories which you can remember (and tell people on birthday parties) even when you are not an accomplished parasitologist.

This is a quick read understandable to anyone who has taken college biology. Desowitz's presentation is primarily anecdotal this makes for quick reading, but also whets the appetite for more information. I recommend "Yellow Fever, Black Goddess : The Coevolution of People and Plagues" by Chrisopher Wills for a more in-depth and contemporary discussion of mosquito-borne parasites and the evolution of disease.

Highly readable! An engaging look into the secret world of parasites and our changing world. This will amaze and startle those who fell asleep in biology class

Robert Desowitz leaves his readers with many 'cliff-hangers' in "The Malaria Capers". The version I read was published in 1991, so some of his unfinished stories may have endings by now---all except for the most important story of all, which is the search for an effective vaccine against the parasitic protozoans that cause malaria and kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis).

Immunization campaigns have eradicated smallpox and may be on the verge of eradicating polio, but the two diseases that this book focuses on cannot currently be prevented with vaccines. The danger of catching malaria or kala azar can be minimized---unfortunately the majority of the population at risk can't even afford the most effective preventive measure---a bed net soaked in insecticide (according to 2000 World Health Organization statistics this costs about $4, plus $1 per year for a supply of insecticide).

No wonder Desowitz gets so mad and preachy in "The Malaria Capers". Malaria still kills over one million people a year (another 2000 WHO statistic) - most of them young children. None of the vaccines that scientists were working on when this book was written have proven to be effective, which is exactly what Desowitz predicted. In his last chapter, "The Vaccine Felonies", he excoriates the Malaria researchers who spent their AID grants on vaccines that were already proven to be ineffective and unsafe for humans. While doing so, they diverted funding from proven preventive measures such as bed nets, put Owl monkeys on the endangered species list, and (even more feloniously according to our laws) lavished the grant money on themselves and their office assistants. One of the stories that Desowitz couldn't finish in 1991 was whether these researchers were tried, convicted, and sent to prison.

This book is more polemical and as a result, less interesting to the lay reader (myself) than his "New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers", but it does have a few 'human interest' stories. The most haunting begins in a small Thai village:

"...The school assembly bell, hanging by a rope from a limb of a mango tree, is the nose cone from an unexploded [Japanese] bomb. Next to the school, raised on pillars, is the wooden residence of a group of monks. On this late morning in June their prayers have ended; only the unceasing anguished cries of a monk dying from throat cancer break the subdued quiet of the village. In a one-room, wood-framed, tin pan-roofed house at the village edge, Amporn Punyagaputa, twenty-three years old and big with child, sits alone, feverish and confused by the searing pain in her head."

Stories like this represent Desowitz at his best and most humane. I can almost guarantee that Amporn Punyagaputa will help you remember why Malaria is still such a killer, long after you've forgotten who misappropriated the AID funds. And you will definitely understand why Desowitz is so angry. You'll be angry, too.

Robert Desowitz's attempt to chronicle the successes and failures of man's quest to leash the ravages of tropical disease (especially malaria and leishmaniasis), results in a very engaging and easy to read book. Through his entertaining and at times, cynical approach, the author explains how throughout history, man's desire to rid himself of the pestilence of infectious disease has sometimes met with success (as in the case of smallpox), as well as with failure (as in the case of malaria). If for instance, we take the case of malaria, just in the figures utilized by the author in his accounting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) effort to combat malaria, he chronicled over $100 million "thrown at" this disease, with the disease still flourishing today in many parts of the world! The author's method of "personalizing" or presenting the experiences and challenges faced by many people in this world at the individual level, succeeds in engaging the reader from the very first chapter. The opening account of the Indian woman, Susheela, who tries desperately to save her dying daughter from visceral leishmaniasis, only to discover that the medicine required to save her daughter is grossly unaffordable, rivets the reader's attention. Here is a personal account of a human tragedy, which could have been told from the perspective of too many families in developing countries even in today's modern world of globalized interdependence. Additionally, Mr. Desowitz does a good job of giving the reader a historical context in which many of the major events in the history of public health, actually took place. This helps the reader to develop a historical frame of reference and better understand the reasoning and motivations of key individuals and governments involved in tropical disease research during that particular period. Mr. Desowitz seeks to inform the reader as to why there currently exists either cures, treatments or vaccinations to only certain diseases, while other diseases seem to flourish with little to no concerted effort by any government, private or international agency to control them. "During the past two decades," states the author, "when biotechnology has made so many stunning advances, the health of tropical peoples has worsened. New, affordable, non-toxic chemotherapeutics have not been developed (because) the drugs-for-profit pharmaceutical industry gives low priority to the diseases of the poor people." Rarely, suggests the author, has human altruism towards his fellow man been the primary reason for the development of protective measures and cures from these diseases. Other more materialistic or self-serving reasons such as economic gain, protection of business, government or military interests, or the quest for recognition and notoriety (such as the Nobel Prize), have been the primary reasons for tropical disease research. The author posits that this motivation continues to this day with relatively little contemporary research effort going into the "poor people diseases" of malaria and tuberculosis. The author presents his main argument first by effectively painting a bleak picture of despair in recent-day India, followed by a detailed chronology of the historical events (and non-events) that lead up to it, and then concludes with an implicit warning. The fact that the health of tropical people has worsened over the past several decades is a physical manifestation of a perceived lack of international concern for certain regions of the globe. Mr. Desowitz cites numerous examples of national and international efforts to combat certain diseases throughout history, and dissects them in a manner by which the reader is left with a more thorough understanding of why the project failed or succeeded in accomplishing its objective. He presents to the reader the "rest of the story" which usually underlies the official version of a project or initiative and uncovers how the human factor of greed, self-service, and ulterior motivations have sometimes driven honest efforts into subversion. On the contrary however, he also very effectively describes how some of the earlier pioneers in the study of infectious disease persevered even in the face of adversity and defeat. A very good example of this is the case of Surgeon Captain Ronald Ross who after over three years of painstaking research and experimentation, discovered that malaria was transmitted by the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito through its salivary glands. Captain Ross' discovery was the culmination of not only his own personal work, but also the work of the countless researchers who came before him and contributed towards the building of the existing body of knowledge in malaria. There were many occasions in Captain Ross' quest for discovery that this author would have thought twice about turning my research efforts elsewhere! He was a true testament in perseverance and will. The Malaria Capers is a "must" read for all public health professionals and those aspiring to become one, as well as personnel entering the clinical research field. It is a fundamental book that prepares those seeking to enter the public health arena to face the challenges contained in the field of infectious diseases. It also sheds some light to the infectious disease researcher why research is only conducted on some diseases, and not others. A potential weakness of this book (which is also a strength!) is the author's perceived cynicism, especially when he describes many of the human blunders and indiscretions, which in his opinion may have set back the discoveries of potentially life-saving drugs and programs by many years. Mr. Desowitz appears to be an absolute subject matter expert in the field, and one who has "walked the walk" and not just "talked the talk." He does an absolutely superb job in capturing the reader's attention and instilling in him the knowledge acquired through years of working the business of infectious disease research. I highly recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in the area of infectious disease. A "highly recommended" book!

I really liked this book. It really introduced to me the history of some of the most scarry diseases of our past and present. This book is very technical with great examples of subject points. Anybody reading it I recommend a big thick dictionary in your lap and a empty stomach.

This is one of the most captivating books on disease written. The facts in this book are far more interesting than any fiction written on the same subjects. Robert S. Desowitz does an excellent job of explaining these topics for those unfamiliar with tropical disease and epidemiology, but doesn't make the book boring for those with a vast knowledge in this area. This is a must read for anyone interested in parasitic diseases.

Robert Desowitz's Who gave Pinta to the Santa Maria? (published in other countries under the less silly title of "Tropical Diseases") deals with the spread and treatment of a number of infectious diseases, with emphasis primarily on yellow fever and malaria in North America. The book approaches its subject from a primarily historical standpoint--the chapters are arranged in terms of chronology rather than by disease, and the biological details of the diseases are only discussed to the extent that they're necessary to understand what was happening historically.

Desowitz's treatment of the subjects he chooses is generally very good. His style is friendly and readable without particularly ever seeming to be too drawn out, and as a nonspecialist I feel like I learned a fair amount from the book. It's also very interesting, and a bit disturbing, to read Desowitz's speculations about what lies ahead for infectious diseases in the new century. However, the scope of the book is a little narrower than I would have liked. A number of diseases often viewed as "tropical" in origin--cholera immediately comes to mind--are mentioned only in passing. Also, with the exception of a brief chapter about England, it seems like the only times the book ventures outside the U.S. and its territories (which included Cuba after the Spanish-American War, where the transmission vectors for yellow fever were discovered) is to discuss the efforts of the U.S.-based Rockefeller Foundation. There are a lot of places in the world where infectious diseases are still killing many people, and a number of organizations not based in the U.S. that are working tirelessly to do something about it--it seems like at least a chapter devoted to this would have been in order.

That said, Desowitz does a fine job of charting yellow fever, malaria, and a few other diseases (notably Chagas' disease) through American history, and both the stories he tells and the historical facts he reveals are often very interesting. At the very least, Desowitz has convinced me that this is a subject that I ought to read more about.

I'm fascinated by the ongoing war between us humans and the bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that plague us. So, I was eager to dive into Robert Desowitz's interestingly titled book, Federal Bodysnatchers and the New Guinea Virus: Tales of Parasites, People and Politics. The book jacket told me that Desowitz is a leading epidemiologist and the author of four other books in the area. I was hoping to get his insider's view of epidemic or emerging diseases, what's being done about them, and the politics of drug development and distribution.

There was certainly some interesting information in the book. I hadn't known, for example, that the global ban on DDT that flowed from Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring inadvertently had a devastating effect on the worldwide effort to eradicate malaria. Desowitz points out that spraying DDT in the houses of people living in malaria-ridden regions was the mainstay of the eradication program, and was very successful. DDT sprayed inside houses did not contribute significantly to the thinning of birds' eggshells that was a key feature of Carson's argument, but saved the lives of millions of people. Unfortunately, this anti-malaria use of DDT was swept away along with other more destructive uses.

Desowitz also provided an interesting blow-by-blow description of the 1999 outbreak of West Nile Virus in New York. Given the risk of bioterrorism, it's sobering to learn that it took from May 21 to September 25 for health authorities to notice and begin to get a grip on the outbreak. Each of twenty or so local, state, and Federal agencies noted one piece of the puzzle--the death of wild birds, the death of birds at a zoo, and human illness and deaths, but it took forever for anyone to see the whole picture. Let's hope that our health agencies have improved both their alertness and their inter-agency communication. If not, we're in big trouble if bioterrorists strike again.

And, in his defense, Desowitz doesn't pull any punches whether he is criticizing health authorities for their failure to communicate, drug companies for their greed or environmentalists for their sometimes one-sided zeal.

What the book does not offer is coherency or consistency. In the midst of presenting one topic, Desowitz jumps into another, and as often as not interrupts that with a wisecrack about something else entirely. Early on, he describes his fellow epidemiologists as cranky and idiosyncratic. That's exactly how he comes across in the book. For me at least, that idiosyncratic style really got in the way of what he was trying to say. I kept comparing this book to Richard Preston's The Demon in the Freezer, which is a model of devoted reporting, clear thinking and vivid writing. The contrast with Desowitz's book could not be stronger. I had the impression that Desowitz basically phoned this one in, with predictable results.

Robert Adler, ...

Epidemiologist Robert Desowitz gets a few things off his chest in this free-swinging frolic through the world of infectious disease with an emphasis on politics, economics and human stupidity. In particular he is not happy about the fact that Big Pharma doesn't find it cost effective to work on drugs that might save lives in Third World countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa, home of not only Ebola and AIDS, but perennial killers, malaria and sleeping sickness. He also doesn't care for the bad press that DDT has endured since "Saint Rachel" (p. 57) published her manifesto, averring that "Nothing has ever equaled DDT" for controlling "the spineless blood-suckers" (mosquito, fly, and tick vectors) that bring dengue, plague, typhus, malaria, sleeping sickness, etc. to our bodies, and that "no essential public measure [the use of DDT] has been so irrationally denied."

He makes a good case. It seems that in saving the ospreys and the eagles and other creatures of the wild we have allowed disease vectors to flourish resulting in countless millions of human lives lost. This surprising point of view, however, made me realize once again the false dilemma that we often put ourselves into, that of "them or us." At some point our rapacious desire to increase our numbers at the expense of our planet home must cease otherwise we will find ourselves alone with our mice and rats, our cows and pigs, our cockroaches and our sheep, our fields of soy and wheat and selected parasites, the rest of nature gone the way of the dodo. Do we need more humans or do we need to save the rainforests? My answer is that we must reduce our numbers and live in concert with nature. Desowitz does not consider this larger point of view in his book. I wish he had.

He does however realize that we need more doctors and that medical schools ought to let more people in. He notes that "Innovative teaching methods can now accommodate double the student intake," wryly adding that "This may force some of the doctors in the new, bigger pool to switch from BMWs to Buicks." (p. 56) He also wants the World Health Organization reformed, calling it "a too-politicized body, best at furnishing slogans." (p. 124) Additionally, he would like to see the big pharmaceutical companies rearrange their priorities. He laments how a drug called DFMO is being manufactured for use as a depilatory to rid women of "uglifying facial hair" (with glossy ads in Cosmopolitan, Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines) when it could better be used to fight sleeping sickness in Uganda and Sudan. (p. 146) One of his pet peeves is the way our patent laws work in respect to genetic material--part of a "patent or perish" syndrome. (See page 203.) He quotes then US secretary of commerce Ronald Brown to the effect that genetic material can be taken from you and patented for the enrichment of someone else and there is nothing you can do about it. (p. 200) Some people call this "biopiracy." (p. 193)

In the later chapters (which are among the most readable in the book) Desowitz considers the possibility that global warming will result in tropical diseases moving north. There's not only that possibility, but with the rise in the sea level and the flooding of rivers, temperate-zone sewers may back up just as they do in, e.g., Bangladesh, and we will have cholera right here in River City.

Desowitz, who is retired and therefore free to say what he thinks without fear of losing some grant or offending those who could torpedo a career, lets the chips fall where they may. Near the end of the book he recalls a Nigerian who supplemented his income by selling human waste. It seems that the Nigerian "pagan farmers...believed that the white man's protein-rich diet made his feces a superior fertilizer"(!) He ends the book with a not so facetious suggestion that maybe we ought "to exploit this bounteous natural gift" to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. (pp. 241-242)

This sort of candid, tell-it-like-it-is expression is the strength of this mostly readable book. Its weakness is that sometimes Desowitz loses awareness of his readership and gets too technical and too minuscule in his delineation of disease politics. He has a few axes to grind and sometimes stays too long at the wheel. Furthermore it is apparent that sometimes he is addressing other professionals and working out old disputes in a way that the general reader cannot fully appreciate.

Bottom line: Desowitz is authoritative and unbeholden to political correctness; he is passionate and writes with verve and a sometimes striking expression, and he is clearly an expert on the material covered.

Thorn in the Starfish is a great book to read if you are interested in finding out about how the immune system works. It is unlike other Desowitz books by explaining how a system works, rather than presenting information in a fun to read manner. It still includes the fun stories about how different aspects of the immune system were discovered.

The book does a remarkable job at explaining the immune system to people with some knowledge, and for people with no knowledge of how it works beforehand. He runs through the different types of cells, what they do and how they work with each other. He covers what you want to know about the immune system so that you know what happens when you get sick. However, if you have a deeper understanding of immunology, if maybe best if you find a good textbook, because this book covers most of the basic information, that one wants to know, and does not go too deep into the issues.

If you want to read this book just because it is by Robert Desowitz, be warned, that though it is a good book, it is not like the other books that he has written. It is still enjoyable but in an educational sort of way. Otherwise, it is well worth reading.