@BOOK{NAP10232, editor = "Madeline Drexler", title = "Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections", isbn = "978-0-309-07638-8", doi = "10.17226/10232", abstract = "So you think modern medicine has the whole virus game figured out? Think again. And it\u2019s not even a question of \u201cif\u201d we\u2019ll be hit by some new and deadly disease\u2014it\u2019s \u201cwhen.\u201d\n\nThe war on germs is being fought on many fronts\u2014from the skirmishes with disease-carrying mosquitoes that cross oceans hidden away in airline wheel wells to the high-profile battle against terrorists wielding deadly bioweapons. Today\u2019s bold headlines would have us believe that the biggest threat comes from bioterrorism. But don\u2019t underestimate Mother Nature, perhaps the most savage bioterrorist of all. Assisted by the increasing ease with which people\u2014and the germs they carry\u2014move across international borders, she\u2019s an effective force to be reckoned with, a key player on this battlefield. As author Madeline Drexler makes clear, we\u2019d do best not to ignore her.\n\nHuman beings and the pathogens that attack them are crossing paths more and more frequently, particularly as modern life grows increasingly complex. Whatever the infectious agent may be, whether it\u2019s pandemic flu, foodborne illness, a debilitating disease carried far and wide by biting insects, or some new microbial horror we have yet to detect, keen surveillance and rapid response are really the only weapons in our arsenal. \n\nSecret Agents looks at today\u2019s new and emerging infections\u2014those that have increased in attack rate or geographic range, or threaten to do so\u2014and tells the stories of scientists racing to catch up with invisible adversaries superior in both speed and guile. Each chapter focuses on a different threat: foodborne pathogens, antibiotic resistance, animals and insectborne diseases, pandemic influenza, infectious causes of chronic disease, and bioterrorism, including the latest information on the public health threats posed by anthrax and diseases such as smallpox. \n\nBased in part on material collected from the Forum on Emerging Infections hosted by the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., Secret Agents is ultimately as engaging as it is disturbing. Drexler\u2019s thorough survey of the field of infectious disease, supplemented by extensive interviews with today\u2019s top researchers, yields a compelling portrait of a world engaged in a clandestine war. \n\nEmerging infections are among the many secret ties that bind the world into an organic whole. We know that infectious disease is an inescapable part of life, but we need to begin thinking globally and acting locally if we are to avoid the menace of a catastrophic outbreak of some new plague. Secret Agents sounds a clear and compelling call to take up arms against the organic predators among us.", url = "https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10232/secret-agents-the-menace-of-emerging-infections", year = 2002, publisher = "The National Academies Press", address = "Washington, DC" }