The Malaria Capers: Tales of Parasites and People

As the other reviewers have pointed out, this is a very informative book about two terrible insect-transmitted diseases, malaria and kala-azar. The sections of the book dealing with the mis-management of the efforts in the search of vaccines are particularly interesting. Overall, this is certainly a worthwhile book. Unfortunately, the writing is not memorable, and I found the author often a bit patronizing and trying too hard to be funny or witty where good, serious prose would have been more welcome. Also, sometimes technical concepts are mentioned without giving the reader sufficient background to fully appreciate their meaning and implications (unlike, for instance, in most of Stephen J Gould's writing, to mention an outstanding example of science essayist). From this perspective, I think Harrison's "Mosquitoes, malaria and men" is a much better book on the history of the interaction between malaria and men, even if it does have the drawback of being about 30 years old, and hence misses almost all of the post 70s fight against malaria history. Friends tell me that Honigsbaum's "The Fever Trail" is also very good and more up to date, but I have not read it so I have no personal opinion about that. So, let us put it this way, I found Desowitz to be an intelligent, very competent and compassionate writer, but I also found him a bit condescending, and his balance between clarity (for the layman) and completeness is a bit too tilted towards the former. Still, a good read, and I thank the author for his effort and for the resulting book!

Robert Desowitz's attempt to chronicle the successes and failures of man's quest to leash the ravages of tropical disease (especially malaria and leishmaniasis), results in a very engaging and easy to read book. Through his entertaining and at times, cynical approach, the author explains how throughout history, man's desire to rid himself of the pestilence of infectious disease has sometimes met with success (as in the case of smallpox), as well as with failure (as in the case of malaria). If for instance, we take the case of malaria, just in the figures utilized by the author in his accounting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) effort to combat malaria, he chronicled over $100 million "thrown at" this disease, with the disease still flourishing today in many parts of the world! The author's method of "personalizing" or presenting the experiences and challenges faced by many people in this world at the individual level, succeeds in engaging the reader from the very first chapter. The opening account of the Indian woman, Susheela, who tries desperately to save her dying daughter from visceral leishmaniasis, only to discover that the medicine required to save her daughter is grossly unaffordable, rivets the reader's attention. Here is a personal account of a human tragedy, which could have been told from the perspective of too many families in developing countries even in today's modern world of globalized interdependence. Additionally, Mr. Desowitz does a good job of giving the reader a historical context in which many of the major events in the history of public health, actually took place. This helps the reader to develop a historical frame of reference and better understand the reasoning and motivations of key individuals and governments involved in tropical disease research during that particular period. Mr. Desowitz seeks to inform the reader as to why there currently exists either cures, treatments or vaccinations to only certain diseases, while other diseases seem to flourish with little to no concerted effort by any government, private or international agency to control them. "During the past two decades," states the author, "when biotechnology has made so many stunning advances, the health of tropical peoples has worsened. New, affordable, non-toxic chemotherapeutics have not been developed (because) the drugs-for-profit pharmaceutical industry gives low priority to the diseases of the poor people." Rarely, suggests the author, has human altruism towards his fellow man been the primary reason for the development of protective measures and cures from these diseases. Other more materialistic or self-serving reasons such as economic gain, protection of business, government or military interests, or the quest for recognition and notoriety (such as the Nobel Prize), have been the primary reasons for tropical disease research. The author posits that this motivation continues to this day with relatively little