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Category:
Science
Publisher: HarperCollins (UK)/ Little Brown (US)
ISBN-10: 0006384552
Pages: 388
Copyright: 1996/ 1997
Where do viruses, such as Ebola and HIV, come from and why they are so aggressive? This book changed tenets of evolutionary virology, developing the concepts of aggressive symbiosis and plague culling, which explain much of the horror of plague viruses.
In the 1980s our comforting illusion that we had conquered plagues through our discovery of vaccines and antibiotics was shattered by the arrival of AIDS. But AIDS is just one of many emerging plagues for which we have, as yet, no cure. Even the great killers of history - TB, cholera, bubonic plague - are making a comeback, often resistant to the drugs that once controlled them. In this book, Frank Ryan goes into the front line of the fight against epidemic disease, to take a long hard look at what is happening and why. You will find many vivid descriptions and some terrifying facts. But the author's interest went beyond merely frightening people. He wanted to know where viruses such as HIV, the cause of AIDS, came from and why they behaved in such a lethal fashion. To answer such questions, he has advanced a radical new evolutionary theory, `Aggressive Symbiosis'. This theory has proved controversial but it was welcomed by leading authorities in reviews in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
In October 2015 Virus X was released by Swift Publishers as a low-priced high quality kindle for the first time. The cover illustrated here is that of the kindle.
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