致命流感 – Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History by Jeremy Brown

流感为什么难以治愈？

病毒如何变异、传播和致病？

是流感本身更致命，还是流感导致的社会恐慌更致命？

流感为什么有季节性？哪些因素影响流感的暴发？

在对抗流感的过程中，药物是带来了革命性的变化，还是仅仅给了人们一种安全感？

我们距离找到一种有效的流感疫苗还有多远？

从文明出现曙光至今，流感一直伴随着我们，作为世界十大致命疾病之一，困扰着地球上所有的文明和社会。

1918年的大流感是一段令人毛骨悚然的历史，它比战争更残酷，是有史以来死亡人数最多的全球性瘟疫，造成5000万至一亿人丧生，超过5亿人感染；1957年暴发于香港的H2N2型流感，夺去了全球约200万人的生命；1968年，大规模的禽流感再次在亚洲暴发；1975年和2009年暴发于美国和墨西哥的猪流感，致死人数数十万；21世纪，我们还遭遇了SARS，MERS，埃博拉，新冠肺炎等由病毒引起的流行性疾病……

杰里米·布朗博士，探究了人类发现流感病毒并与之抗争的历史，审视了与流感相关的若干重要问题，旨在提供全面综合的历史的同时，探索一条治愈流感的未来路线图。

On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?

While influenza is now often thought of as a common and mild disease, it still kills over 30,000 people in the US each year. Dr. Jeremy Brown, currently Director of Emergency Care Research at the National Institutes of Health, expounds on the flu’s deadly past to solve the mysteries that could protect us from the next outbreak. In Influenza, he talks with leading epidemiologists, policy makers, and the researcher who first sequenced the genetic building blocks of the original 1918 virus to offer both a comprehensive history and a roadmap for understanding what’s to come.

Dr. Brown digs into the discovery and resurrection of the flu virus in the frozen victims of the 1918 epidemic, as well as the bizarre remedies that once treated the disease, such as whiskey and blood-letting. Influenza also breaks down the current dialogue surrounding the disease, explaining the controversy over vaccinations, antiviral drugs like Tamiflu, and the federal government’s role in preparing for pandemic outbreaks. Though 100 years of advancement in medical research and technology have passed since the 1918 disaster, Dr. Brown warns that many of the most vital questions about the flu virus continue to confound even the leading experts.

Influenza is an enlightening and unnerving look at a shapeshifting deadly virus that has been around long before people—and warns us that it may be many more years before we are able to conquer it for good.