"The Virus Hunters" by Joseph B McCormick and Susan Fisher-Hoch

Ebola. Lassa Fever. AIDS. These are viral diseases responsible for horrible deaths. The authors have worked in Africa and Asia on the front-line of the war against these terrible diseases. The book, written in 1996, is not up to date with the latest treatments, or the more recent outbreaks, but it provides a compelling and highly readable account of how doctors, virologists and epidemiologists work in sometimes primitive conditions in scarcely-functioning underdeveloped countries to understand the methods of transmission of these diseases and to find ways of curing or, if possible, preventing them. The tenacity, skill and raw courage of these people is remarkable and the story that they tell is fascinating. And there are some great observations and sometimes some very funny moments.

I suspect some people might object to this book because it portrays various African and Asian countries as underdeveloped, frequently chaotic, and in dire need of Western help. I understand that this narrative reinforces a potentially racist perspective, suggesting that these countries are backward, uncivilised and primitive. On the other hand, it appears to be an honest reflection of the societies at that time, often torn by civil strife and misgovernment, and attempting to cope with rapid urbanisation and overwhelming poverty. It seems to me that it is better to be realistic about situation and to provide what help can be given, rather than to argue about who is to blame for what. Surely what we should do is try to alleviate the suffering of our fellow humans. These medics did that.

Selected quotes

• "These microbes do not lurk in some dark corner, waiting to pounce, in ambuscade for human prey. It is we who interfere with their habitat, not the other way around. Left to their own devices, they reside successfully - and often silently - in biological balance with their natural hosts. Only when man invades their environment does he become their prey." (Preface)
• "Ebola can produce a throat so swollen and painful that a victim of the disease can't even swallow his own saliva. When you peer down such a throat, you see what could be mistaken for a raw hamburger." (Prologue Nzara, 1979)
• "The first thing you have to do is become an instant expert. You have to get your hands on everything you can find on the subject and read it, for the most part en route to the site of the outbreak." (Of Epidemiology and Potato Salad)
• "Zaire was at peace now, but it was a peace of the dead and the dying." (The Death of a Nurse from Yambuku)
• "The advice the map offered wasn't exactly reassuring ... 'The delineation of international boundaries must not be considered authoritative'." (The Battle Commences)
• "The pace of the railroad challenged the snail for slowness."  (The Battle Commences)
• "Beer serves as a barometer of how an African economy is faring. When the beer goes, you know that things have hit rock bottom."  (The Battle Commences)
• "Anyone who had power and failed to use it was like as not to lose it forever."  (The Battle Commences)
• "He was laconic to the point of being mute. His silences had something belligerent about them, though." (The Ebola Trail)
• "Medicine ... reminds us: we make feeble gods." (Of Souls and Centrifuges)
• "Getting aloft seems a miracle unlikely to be matched by landing in one piece on the same trip." (Nzara Revisited)
• "There was no way I would find anyone willing to transport me. ... And then, lo and behold! Deus ex machina. Or if not Deus himself, then his representative. For who, of all people, should appear ... but the archbishop of Canterbury! And what's more, he has his own plane." (Sue's Story)
• "I was born in August of 1940 in Denby, England, in the middle of the only bombing raid the town experienced during that long, hot summer." (Sue's Story)
• "As we stepped out onto the runway we were immediately enveloped by a heat so intense asnd humid that it felt like walking through glue." (The Lassa Project Revisited)
• "Nothing moved except the flies and the mosquitoes, and the lizards chasing them over the walls and into the light fixtures." (Juju)
• "Sitting around the table were men of few words, many of which were now expletives." (Ebola in Virginia?)
• "In the Falkland Islands, mutton is called '365' because it is served every day of the year." (Desert Fevers)

An incredible book. August 2021; 365 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God