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Preface and Introduction

• In the Preface, Johnathan Mann of the Harvard School of Public Health discusses how our time in history will be tracked by newly emerging epidemics.

• The vulnerability of the world is increased due to modern travel, huge populations, trading of goods and services, and the penetration of modern society into remote areas of the world.
• In the Introduction, Laurie Garrett discusses her Uncle Bernard's experiences as a doctor in 1932.

• Garrett mentions the miracle of penicillin, but points out that many began to question if diseases thought gone could return.

• By the 1980s, AIDS was rampant, and by 1991, the Institute of Medicine convened a panel to discuss the severity of a microbial threat to US citizens.
• There were many critics of the panel who believed the emphasis was too narrow and that many emerging diseases were not viral.

• Modernization efforts also increased disease in the poorer...

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