Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites

Although this book deals with a subject which I find endlessly fascinating, I must conclude it was a disappointment.

The writing is uninspired and sloppy. Perhaps the author would have benefited from a co-author with more varied and interesting prose style, or at least a keen-eyed editor. One glaring mess that stand out in my mind is when a patient with Hanta virus is described as "going into cardiac arrest, and shock." Pretty sure that should be the other way around, which I assume the author knows. Unfortunately, careless errors like that make it hard to lend much credence.

I'm not sure if the print version is any more enjoyable but this was not a good audio version. Narrated by Julie McKay, it is delivered like an instruction manual for assembling furniture. She spells out abbreviations and acronyms constantly ("U-S-A-M-R-I-I-D") instead of utilizing common pronunciations. Her pronunciation of medical terminology leaves a lot to be desired. These things may sound nit-picky, but anyone who reads a lot of audiobooks knows that a narrator can make or break a book!

There are many interesting books on epidemiology; this is just not one of them. "Beating Back the Devil" by Maryn McKenna is a much better book dealing with EIS, and "Spillover" by David Quammen is a really engaging read dealing specifically with diseases that cross over from animal reservoirs. I would recommend both of those a hundred times over "Deadly Outbreaks."

Julie McKay should stick to narrating children's books if she can't pronounce any better than in this book. Horrible. I have heard most of these cases before. The Philadelphia Legionnaires, the ice cream incident, etc. Very repetitive of other works.

One of my favorite topics for nonfiction books. However, it's REALLY hard to get past the narrator on this one. It seems to plod along in a very monotone delivery. Common acronyms are spelled out rather than pronounced phonetically (USAMRIID for example). The organization of the chapters seems to vary as well.

Do not be off-put by the acronym-laden sentences especially in the intro and first chapter. After experiencing the whole book, I can build a case for the "case study" chosen for chapter one. However, it builds slowly, failing to provide a true sense of the book. Be patient! So worth it! Every chapter is a true short story as adrenaline-pumping as the best (well-researched) medical thrillers. It is not necessary to read the chapters in order. Ultimately, this truly impressive book provides an excellent tutorial into microbiology & epidemiological research work. And is primarily shared in "page-turning" drama. Highly recommend! I immediately searched for another book by this author. I hope one is produced soon.

When my son was in kindergarten, I read him Dian Dincin Buchman, PhD's "Deadly Medical Mysteries: How They Were Solved" (2000). It is a wonderful book of short, true detective stories, 10 to 20 pages each, in easy kids' words. My son loved it so much he took it to school on Book Share Day. One of his favorite stories was how Lyme disease was isolated by two mothers comparing their kids' symptoms in Lyme, Connecticut.

Alexandra Levitt, MD's "Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites" (2013) has the much lengthier and complex story of how Centers for Disease Control scientist Willy Burgdorfer, MD (1925 - 2014) isolated a tick-borne bacteria that's now called Borrelia burgdorferi in his honor. It's an important lesson in thinking outside the box - well, actually, in Burgdorfer's case, thinking inside an entirely different box because his training was in Rickettsial diseases. Burgdorfer intuitively used an approach in culturing the bacterium that a non-Rickettsial trained scientist wouldn't have used, and it worked.

Burgdorfer's work on Lyme disease was long, exacting and necessary, which contrasts with the 1983 work done by epidemiologists Patrick McConnon and Roland Sutter. They were trying to source a malarial outbreak in Cambodian refugee camps that only affected men in their 20's and 30's. The scientists conducted interviews, drew blood, and puzzled endlessly over the cause. A casual conversation with a camp worker solved the mystery months later: the malarial men, who'd developed a drug resistant strain, were gun runners for the Khemer Rouge. They contracted the disease from jungle sources, not at camps. That's an important lesson that while medical research and analysis is important, boots on the ground, taking to people can be at least as important.

"Deadly Outbreaks" is also the history of the CDC's Epidemiologic Intelligence Services (EIS). It's a nifty program for statisticians, doctors, veterinarians, and epidemiologists to learn how to determine what's causing a disease and to track outbreaks. There's a thorough discussion of how applied statistics are used to track diseases. The story of sourcing Legionnaire's disease and locating its reservoir was a fascinating demonstration of statistics in action.

The book did tend to wander down tangents that are particularly hard to follow on an Audible book. And it got repetitive at times, perhaps because each chapter may be meant to stand alone.

The narration - well - parts of it drove me nuts. The narrator's voice was fine, but she mispronounced some biological words. One particular pet peeve: USAMRIID, for United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The narrator says it as each individual letter. It's commonly pronounced as u-Sam-rid. Grammatically, either way is acceptable - but reading off the acronym letter-by-letter jars the narration.

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The story is very informative however, the narration is boring. It does help me sleep.

Great book but the speaker continually mis-pronounces scientific words to the point of being distracting

Super interesting! I had to double check when it hit the credits at the end, because I honestly couldn't believe it was over. Well researched, well presented, and well narrated. For the most part - the constant mispronunciation of the "Mayo" part of "Mayo Clinic" was grating, but that's probably because I live in Minnesota and am very familiar with Mayo. Other than that (very minor) detail, I honestly enjoyed the book and will likely listen to it again.