The Fears of the Rich, the Needs of the Poor - My Years at the CDC - by William H. Foege

Beautiful, wonderful, clear, encouraging book: The Fears of the Rich, the Needs of the Poor - My Years at the CDC - by William H. Foege published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

First of all: what is the CDC? It is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This organism, born 70 years ago in the USA, has been crucial for the discovery, treatment, via vaccine mainly, of a lot of dangerous illnesses in the country and in the world.

Not only this book is clear and can be read by everyone but it is also an exploration in the mind of this doctor, real explorator not just when he traveled in the most remote towns of the Planet, but also when he stayed in the USA, for trying to discover why a possible virus was born; what happened; causes, cures, potential vaccinations; how to prevent an outbreak, because you see, a virus is like a stranger; you must know it, its character, its mutations, and considering that it's an enemy, how to "kill" it as quickly as possible, if possible.

These doctors at the CDC acted in this way with a terrible illness like Ebola, still a vivid danger for the world, and Lassa a virus I frankly didn't know: poor, critical conditions experts tell, people at strict contact with dangerous animals (mouses) caused the development of this illness.
I didn't know this, but it seems that when a person is affected by a virus   in a country, an outbreak is potentially possible.

It was different the arrival of Legionnaire's Disease; I found fascinating the theory that the virus existed, but paradoxically hadn't never discovered and developed a modality for its materialization; which materialization, obviously, wasn't searched or desired at all by the humanity.

It happened during the celebration for the American's birthday in Pennsylvania, in 1976, in a hotel. A lot of people fell sick, but that years attention was all dedicated to swine flu: was this one a new outbreak of that kind of flu?

No: it was a new terrible illness. I know a person in the past affected by this illness and for what they told me, it was a devastating experience because at first not recognized.

This book will let you also introduce optimistically at the land of vaccinations. Eighteen in total for children in the USA, there are also two anti-cancer vaccines: the one for liver and the one for cervix.
In the past polio created terrible diseases, paralysis in children (I know examples) and adults as well. The example of mr.Foege for adults, the one of President Roosevelt.

Smallpox's  vaccine has been a great conquest. You will read how they started to immunizing people. It was a stroke of luck; this history brought at a complete success, the illness has been completely defeated.

If you are a woman and a tampon's addicted because practicals, you have heard of TSS. I didn't know the story of this illness; tampons of a brand, not anymore existent, started to causing a strong infection in women. The curiosity that brought at the resolution of the case? People involved were in particular fertile women and there was a strong connection between a certain brand of tampons and that illness.

One of the most terrible outbreaks was, and is, AIDS for the social reasons connected with it.
Everything started at the beginning of 1980s when five men, all gays, died with strange and uncommon symptoms and illnesses.
At first no one understood realistically if this one was a virus or something else; when clarified that this one was a virus, the devastating news was that it was not yet possible to heal from this important illness in grade of killing all the defenses of the organism of the sick person  and again that this virus was mainly transmitted sexually or via fresh blood. The biggest fight was to try to let understand to people that the biggest problem is sexual transmission and so that the use of condom should be a good habit in particular when and if the person is searching for occasional sex, and that promiscuity is never a great idea.
It's not just the only way for catching the virus; if a person with this illness goes by the dentist and the dentist doesn't keep cleaned the environment and instruments he uses, it is also possible this modality of transmission; if a person needs a transfusion and blood is infected; if a person touches fresh blood helping another person injured; let's say that sex is the most pleasant method of transmission, but the conclusion is not at all exciting.
I don't know if there is not yet a vaccine for the HIV virus because this virus changes skin continuously and for what I read it's not the same one from patient to patient. Mutation is its main aspect and maybe, who knows? a problem for scientists. Let's hope that very soon this illness will be defeated because in particular, in the third world, problem is epidemic.

Very interesting book, I suggest to everyone this reading so badly!

I thank Johns Hopkins University Press for the physical copy of this book.

Anna Maria Polidori