From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

David Quammen

Start date: September 1, 2013

Finish date: September 30, 2013

Discussion: Book Club 2013

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 26 topics — 537 comments total

Book Club 2013

December 2013: "The Strangest Man"
By David · 22 posts · 150 views

last updated Jan 03, 2016 10:51AM

June 2013 - Cosmos
By Betsy , co-mod · 45 posts · 171 views

last updated Mar 11, 2014 04:07PM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Aug 17, 2018 Petra X rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: medicine-science, animals-ethology, travel-adventure-countries, 2018-100-reviews, reviewed

Update At first I thought this book was so relevant to the present coronavirus pandemic crisis in the world, but it's not really as the one thing the book doesn't discuss is what if an animal illness - a bat one, as so many are - is modified or experimented on in a laboratory and it infects a person, who then is patient zero and infects the world? The laboratory connection is not mentioned at all, and therefore the book is not so prescient as many people think, unless you subscribe to the wet ma ...more

258 likes · Like · see review

Sep 28, 2013 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biology, ecology, evolution, science

A "spillover" occurs when a microbe crosses over from an animal to humans, as an infectious disease. David Quammen describes many examples of this: SARS, ebola, HIV, influenza, marburg and hendra.

Each chapter is a detective story--scientists, veterinarians and medical researchers are detectives searching for the source of a disease. The source is usually a reservoir--an animal that carries the microbe, but is not usually harmed by the microbe.

And--now here's the best part--Quammen is not a stay A "spillover" occurs when a microbe crosses over from an animal to humans, as an infectious disease. David Quammen describes many examples of this: SARS, ebola, HIV, influenza, marburg and hendra.

Each chapter is a detective story--scientists, veterinarians and medical researchers are detectives searching for the source of a disease. The source is usually a reservoir--an animal that carries the microbe, but is not usually harmed by the microbe.

And--now here's the best part--Quammen is not a stay-at-home researcher. He visits the scientists and interviews them over extended periods of time. And better yet--he accompanies scientists on research expeditions all over the world, in search of the reservoirs for terrible diseases. Quammen describes, in detail, what it is like to hunt for elusive viruses in bats, chimpanzees, monkeys, and horses. Often, the researchers must take special precautions to avoid being infected themselves. Sometimes these precautions fail, with awful consequences.

Quammen investigates why spillovers occur when and where they do. It's a combination of ecology and evolution. A microbe is carried by an animal reservoir, and usually in equilibrium where the animal is unharmed. Then, some dramatic change to the environment occurs, usually it is caused by humans impinging on the local ecology. The microbe mutates and jumps either to a vector (like a mosquito or a rat) or directly to a human. Further mutations then allow the microbe to jump from one human to another, causing an epidemic.

Researchers agree that in the future, there will be lethal epidemics like AIDS and the influenza pandemic of 1918. Such epidemics are totally unpredictable, because of the diversity of human behavior.

David Quammen is an excellent writer--he has a wonderful style. It is obvious from his enthusiasm and from his extensive travels, that this book represents his life-long efforts. Spillover is a sequence of detective mysteries and adventure stories, all rolled up into one. I highly recommend it!
...more

35 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2013 Mary rated it really liked it

Shelves: science

Quammen's book Spillover is a book that those who enjoy reading nonfiction especially about science will really love. I liked this book. It was fascinating reading. I am sure washing my hands a lot more frequently now, but have not started wearing a mask.

Spillover reads almost like a collection of mystery stories. He discusses various diseases that have moved from animals to humans and explains the scientific detective work that went into to finding the method of transmission to humans. Among t ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 17, 2012 Jennifer rated it really liked it

I like germs. I like to read about them, see where they are spreading according to websites devoted to germs, and even hope to work in infection control when I get done with school. All that said, I have to add that I only like other people's germs, not ones that get me or my kid or my dog. So I found this book pretty terrifying because while it debunks some of the more dramatic symptoms of various illnesses I have read about lately (people don't really liquify from Ebola) it forces me to think ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 22, 2012 Mitchell Friedman rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, library, liked-reviews, four-star, science

Big exhausting scary and kind of hard to read. But definitely interesting. Its written in a frequently breezy style which would be improved my removing all of the side snark. There were definitely stuff in here I knew but lots that I didn't. The description of the origin of HIV/AIDS was definitely new to me and pretty understandable. And very little about this book was a recap. But the book was a slog and I put it down for a week. 3.5 of 5. ...more

1 like · Like · see review