"This book explores some of history's most gruesome diseases. Readers will be enthralled by the history and science of terrible plagues and the bacteria, bugs, bad hygiene, and rats responsible."--

"Prizewinning journalist Sonia Shah interweaves history, original reportage, and personal narrative to explore the origins of contagions, drawing parallels between cholera, one of history's most deadly and disruptive pandemic-causing pathogens, and the new diseases that stalk humankind today." --