In doing so, Pandemic takes its reader from the initial “spillover” of cholera from copepods in the Sundarbans wetlands of the Bay of Bengal through a series of historical outbreaks, including the recent outbreaks in Haiti.

Although there have been several other books that have examined the origins of pandemics, Shah attempts to differentiate her analysis by using Rita Colwell’s description of the “Cholera Paradigm” as a framework for discussing the categories of social and environmental change for example, locomotion, filth, crowds, and social dynamics that can explain how the microbes can emerge and spread disease around the world ( 1). Given these events, Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, From Cholera to Ebola and Beyond by Sonia Shah makes for a very timely read. As we struggle to understand both the scale and impact of the Zika and Ebola crises, we are forced to once again ask: how did this happen and what can we do to prevent the next one?

Both viruses, previously thought to cause only limited outbreaks, surprised the people of the world with a seemingly sudden ability to spread across multiple countries and cause illness in new, previously unthinkable ways. Martin's Press, Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, NY, USA, 2016ĭuring the past 2 years, back-to-back epidemics of Ebola and Zika have stunned even seasoned public health officials with unprecedented levels of illness and death that have been associated with these events.

Pandemic sonia shah sparknotes