The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic

by Alan Sipress Narrated by George K. Wilson

Overview

When avian flu began spreading across Asia in the early 2000s, it reawakened fears that had lain dormant for nearly a century. During the outbreak's deadliest years, Alan Sipress chased the virus as it infiltrated remote jungle villages and teeming cities and saw its mysteries elude the world's top scientists. In The Fatal Strain, Sipress details how socioeconomic and political realities in Asia make it the perfect petri dish in which the fast-mutating strain can become easily communicable among humans. Once it does, the ease and speed of international travel and worldwide economic interdependence could make it as destructive as the flu pandemic of 1918.



In his vivid portrayal of the struggle between man and microbe, Sipress gives a front-line view of the accelerating number of near misses across Asia and the terrifying truth that the prospects for this impending health crisis may well be in the hands of cockfighters, live chicken merchants, and witch doctors rather than virologists or the World Health Organization.



Like The Hot Zone and The Great Influenza, The Fatal Strain is a fast-moving account that brings the inevitability of an epidemic into a fascinating cultural, scientific, and political narrative.

Editorial Reviews

David Oshinsky

The bad news, says Alan Sipress in his superb and sobering book about the shadowy progression of a virulent avian flu now moving across Asia, is that the worst is yet to come. Sipress…is uniquely positioned to tell this story. He's intimately familiar with the region, having served as a correspondent in South Asia during the devastating recent tsunami. And his grasp of virology, as well as of the ins and outs of the world health bureaucracy, serves him well in explaining why medical practices that appear so obvious to Western experts in containing a deadly epidemic are largely irrelevant to "the backyard chicken farmers, cockfighters, witch doctors, political bosses, and poultry smugglers" who control the terrain where this battle must be fought.
—The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

With the current focus on the H1N1, or swine flu, people may have forgotten about the avian flu scare of a few years ago. The deadly avian, or H5N1, flu centered in Asia and garnered similar headlines in 2004, announcing fears of a pandemic. In his first book, Sipress, a writer for the Washington Post, comes bearing the unhappy news that the avian flu threat grows more dire every day (outbreaks reported as recently as this year). Sipress rides shotgun with WHO researchers as they cross Southeast Asia tracking transmission of the disease and trying to persuade recalcitrant governments to report cases of avian flu and cull flocks of thousands of chickens. Yet possibly infected birds continue to be smuggled across borders, and experts say we are not appropriately prepared to combat a pandemic. Sipress writes at a breathless pace at times, and after a while his case histories blend. Remarkably, he makes no mention of the current H1N1 outbreak. But readers interested in public health or who like to stay abreast of all possible looming threats will want to read this. (Nov. 16)

Kirkus Reviews

A grim, harrowing account of what is happening-and not happening-in Southeast Asia as countries confront bird flu. Former Washington Post business editor and foreign correspondent Sipress spent years following human outbreaks of bird flu in mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia as the disease relentlessly moved west. The culprit was the virulent H5N1 influenza virus, which has ravaged geese, ducks, other wild fowl, the roosters groomed for cockfighting and, most importantly, domestic chickens, transmitting disease to human bird handlers or consumers. Like all flu viruses, H5N1 is quick to mutate or mix genes with other flu viruses, meaning that it can develop resistance to drugs or vaccines. In some places it may have already become asymptomatic in birds, which makes checking the source of a human outbreak, already problematic, even more formidable. The critical question is when a mutation will ease human-to-human transmission. That will be the takeoff point for a pandemic that will dwarf the mortality of the 1918 flu epidemic. The World Health Organization and other global health leaders, as well as the many epidemiologists and virologists tracking the virus, are convinced that it is not question of if but when. The reasons vary: the globalization of commerce and travel means that all parts of the world are connected within hours; a growing middle class in developing countries is eating more meat, and poultry conglomerates have risen to meet the need, in some cases conspiring with governments to suppress news of poultry disease and required bird cullings; developing countries are still too poor to cope with epidemic disease or vaccinations. Some have pledged notto cooperate in disease surveillance, blaming the West for taking their virus samples to make drugs or vaccines that are too expensive for them. There is still much to be learned about the virus, and Sipress's sketches of the heroic men and women at the frontlines enrich the narrative, even as he expertly details the obstacles posed when a disease becomes a matter of politics, commerce and culture clash. Exemplary-and highly frightening-investigative reporting. Author events around Washington, D.C. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn/The Sagalyn Agency

From the Publisher

"This is a book about much more than a lethal threat from the influenza virus. It's about the fog of war, about reality, about the gap between those who make plans and those who carry them out. And ultimately it's about hero'sm and determination. There are lessons here for everyone, and in compelling fashion this book drives those lessons home."——John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

“Alan Sipress has produced a vivid and enthralling story that could not be more timely. Ever evolving, ever elusive, influenza threatens us on a scale far worse than anything we've yet seen. Sipress pursues the deadly strain through Asia with tenacious energy, revealing the true scale of the danger, and the terrifying inadequacy of our readiness to face it.”——Pete Davies, Author of Devil’s Flu and Inside the Hurricane

“The Fatal Strain reads like a gripping medical mystery novel-only it is not. It is the true story of the scary world of pandemic influenza expertly written by one of the leading ‘flu journalists’ of our time. Although the H1N1 (swine) influenza pandemic is unfolding before us, we must not take our eye off of avian influenza, as it very well may lead to a deadly “one-two pandemic punch.” Anyone who cares about what might happen to their loved ones, friends or colleagues should read this book.”——Michael T. Osterholm PhD, MPH., Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota

“Masterfully paced, gripping work”——Seed

“Exemplary—and highly frightening—investigative reporting.”——Kirkus (starred review)

“Timely, given today’s headline-bursting thread of swine flu (H1N1). It is…a cautionary tale [as] influenza is about politics.”——Booklist

AUGUST 2010 - AudioFile

The author describes how, competing with witch doctors, prejudice, and politics, researchers went into the homes of bird flu patients in Asia to collect specimens. Risking their lives, the doctors were working to determine if a virus had moved from animals to humans and if human-to-human transmission had occurred. The need to be accurate was paramount because declaring a pandemic requires consideration of the enormous economic and cultural consequences. Not known for embellishing his narrations, George Wilson takes a professional leap by giving regional accents to the Thai and Chinese participants in the story. Even though his voices don’t resemble those of Asians speaking English, at least we can distinguish among the various people being quoted. Wilson’s slow and meticulous reading suits an audiobook with copious details to absorb. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170262007
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	11/16/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

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