Disease Maps

Product Description

In the seventeenth century, a map of the plague suggested a radical idea-that the disease was carried & spread by humans. In the nineteenth century, maps of cholera cases were used to prove its waterborne nature. More recently, maps charting the swine flu pandemic caused worldwide panic & sent shockwaves through the medical community. In ” Disease Maps”, Tom Koch contends that to understand epidemics & their history we need to think about maps of varying scale, from the individual body to shared symptoms evidenced across cities, nations, & the world. ” Disease Maps” begins with a brief review of epidemic mapping today & a detailed example of its power. Koch then traces the early history of medical cartography, including pandemics such as European plague & yellow fever, & the advancements in anatomy, printing, & world atlases that paved the way for their mapping. Moving on to the scourge of the nineteenth century-cholera-Koch considers the many choleras argued into existence by the maps of the day, including a new perspective on John Snow`s science & legacy. Finally, Koch addresses contemporary outbreaks such as AIDS, cancer, & H1N1, & reaches into the future, toward the coming epidemics. Ultimately, ” Disease Maps” redefines conventional medical history with new surgical precision, revealing that only in maps do patterns emerge that allow disease theories to be proposed, hypotheses tested, & treatments advanced.