I was initially drawn to the book by the fact that the author, David Quammen, seeks to examine how an unknown disease moved from animals to human beings affecting more than 60 million people around the world. Reading the title, I was attracted to the book considering that it highlights the fact that the author sought to examine how AIDS emerged from an African forest to become one of the most deadly diseases affecting a significant number of people around the world. Quammen provides readers with what he describes as a radical analysis of the dark history associated with AIDS through an in-depth evaluation of recent research on the disease. Personally, I found the book as being rather captivating, as the author was able to connect with the readers through his understanding of recent research as a way of ensuring that readers would get a clear understanding of AIDS.
After completing the book, my initial thoughts were Quammen’s analysis of how AIDS resulted from a ‘spillover’ may also explain some of the diseases affecting human beings today. Throughout the book, I must say that I found Quammen’s investigation as hair-raising, as he seeks to provide readers with an in-depth explanation of how, where, and when the ‘spillover’ occurred. The investigations conducted in the book are rather effective in seeking to explain different aspects associated with one of the greatest mysteries in the world today, which is finding a cure for AIDS.
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The book connects with public health from several key perspectives, which are important to evaluate in seeking to examine how the book is structured. Firstly, the book highlights the implications that animals are likely to have in spreading diseases within human populations. From the book, Quammen examines a bloody encounter between predator and prey, which was between man and chimp. The outcome was that the chimp, which was carrying a blood-borne disease, contributed to the ‘spillover’ to human beings. Secondly, the book also connects to public health, as it seeks to explain the importance of having to investigate the history of a disease when intending to find a possible cure. Quammen was able to find patient zero, a Cameroonian hunter; an important step to ensuring that the history of one of the world’s deadliest diseases is examined. Thirdly, the book connects to public health, as it seeks to provide insight into one of the diseases that is affecting human being today, AIDS, which remains as a challenge due to lack of a cure. In this book, Quammen examines AIDS from a historical point of view as a way of trying to understand where it may have come from, as this is important in trying to find a cure to the disease.
My favorite part of the book was when Quammen was examining the exact event that led to the ‘spillover’ where he sought to examine the nature of the encounter, which was somewhat bloody. After the hunter had been affected by a blood-borne disease, which remained unknown, scientists labeled it SIV considering that it was a condition that they did not understand. The discussion of how the disease was likely to have moved from the chimp to the human’s blood stream is one of my favorites, as it provides me with a sensation knowing that the disease would later become as deadly as it is today.
In my view, I would recommend this book for future semesters, as it is of great value in trying to examine one of the notable diseases that health professions will encounter, HIV/AIDS. The book embarks on a process of having to discuss how the disease spread from a small village in west Africa to different parts of the world at the rate at which it has spread, which I consider as being rather important in public health education. Understanding how the disease spread may have in preventing future epidemics that are likely to have a similar outcome where millions of people are affected by a disease that was previously unknown.
