Synopses & Reviews
The story of public health is often told in numbers--new cases of AIDS, deaths from malaria, doses of vaccine delivered to India. Impact gives those numbers a hauntingly human face, at once heart-breaking and inspiring. The eradication of smallpox proved that the world could unite to fight a common enemy. But this extraordinary triumph was soon eclipsed by the ferocious spread of AIDS, a humbling reminder that new infections still threaten. Today, polio is on the verge of being eradicated. But many age-old diseases, like tuberculosis and malaria, still take a deadly toll. The world of public health today is marked by many such contrasts. While people in some parts of the world suffer from diseases of malnutrition, others are in the midst of an epidemic of obesity from having too much. In some countries, state-of-the-art antiviral drugs are keeping people with AIDS alive. In others, babies die everyday from lack of clean drinking water. Impact: From the Frontlines of Global Health offers a sweeping look at the state of the world's health. National Geographic photographer Karen Kasmauski's powerful images, created over the past 15 years, document both the suffering and the heroic efforts of scientists and healers to alleviate that suffering and improve health around the world. The text, by award-winning medical writer Peter Jaret, points out the appalling disparities that exist between the haves and the have-nots--and highlights sweeping new initiatives to bridge that gap through forging unorthodox coalitions. The authors depict the forces that have made the world so vulnerable to the spread of new or reemerging diseases--from overpopulation and environmental disruption to the chaos ofwar and the mass movements of refugees--as well as newly reinvigorated efforts around the world to find creative and practical solutions.
Synopsis
This sweeping look at the state of the world's health includes "National Geographic" photographer Karen Kasmauski's powerful images created over the past 15 years and text by award-winning medical writer Peter Jaret.