The Life and Death of Smallpox

Patrick Berche (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

218 Seiten

2025 | Unabridged edition
Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-0364-5389-3 (ISBN)

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Smallpox is one of mankind's worst scourges, caused by an airborne virus with a 30% fatality rate. Known since ancient times, the disease gradually spread throughout the world as a result of colonial expansion and the slave trade. The pandemic was still responsible for nearly 300 million deaths in the 20th century. The discovery of vaccinia led to the eradication of smallpox in 1980 after a worldwide vaccination campaign. Recent advances in ancient DNA technology have allowed the historical record to be completed, revealing a surprising genetic flexibility of the smallpox virus that may explain variations in virulence from one era to the next. It remains a threat to humanity today, as viable viruses stored in laboratories could become biological weapons against non-immune populations. Recently, we have also witnessed the emergence of worldwide epidemics of the closely related monkeypox virus, which appears to be adapting to the human species. The history of smallpox provides a unique panoramic view of the life and death of a plague.

Patrick Berche (1945), MD, PhD, is a microbiologist, Professor emeritus (University Paris Cité, France), former chief of the department at the Hospital Necker-Enfants Malades and Director of an Inserm Research Unit devoted to the genetics of bacterial virulence and clinical microbiology. He was Dean of the Paris-Descartes School of Medicine (2000-2014) and then General Director of the Pasteur Institute of Lille, France (2014-2018). He was implicated in many international missions (Chine, Japan, India, Morocco, Tunisia) and humanitarian activities on the field (Colombia, Ecuador, Central America), including as Director of an EEC (European Economic Community) program (1992-2000) to fight cholera and childhood diarrhea in South America. He is member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has published 388 articles, including 227 in international journals and 20 books as main author, most on the history of medicine.

Erscheinungsdatum	04.10.2025
Verlagsort	Newcastle upon Tyne
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 212 mm
Themenwelt	Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete
	Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Geschichte / Ethik der Medizin
	Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Infektiologie / Immunologie
ISBN-10	1-0364-5389-8 / 1036453898
ISBN-13	978-1-0364-5389-3 / 9781036453893
Zustand	Neuware