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Plagues and the paradox of progress : why the world Is getting healthier in worrisome ways / Thomas J. Bollyky.

by Bollyky, Thomas J., author.

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Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2018]

Public health -- Social aspects.

9780262038454 (hardcover : alk. paper) :

0262038455 (hardcover : alk. paper) :

xvi, 259 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

How the world starts getting better. Death, disease, and the fall of prehistoric man. The path to better health in wealthier nations. A better world begins as a more unequal one -- Diseases of conquest and colony. The colonial and military roots of global health. The path to better health in poorer nations. Death and demography. The legacy of ebola. The difference that health aid makes -- Diseases of childhood. A child survival revolution. China's other great leap forward. Is healthier wealthier? The (potential) dividends of demography. Sunny in Nairobi, with a chance of storms. Cell phones, not factories. The perils of youth -- Diseases of settlement. Cholera and the white death. A simple solution. Poor world cities. The perils of growing naturally. Climate and the environment. The Tunis effect. Returning to Dhaka -- Diseases of place. The growth industry in Agadez, Niger. People, not just potatoes. Migration as the history of disease. The world is getting better in worrisome ways -- The exoneration of William H. Stewart. Confronting the complex of multiple causation. The role of aid in adapting to the decline of infectious diseases. The myth of the good epidemic.

Plagues and parasites have played a central role in world affairs, shaping the evolution of the modern state, the growth of cities, and the disparate fortunes of national economies. This book tells that story, but it is not about the resurgence of pestilence. It is the story of its decline. For the first time in recorded history, virus, bacteria, and other infectious diseases are not the leading cause of death or disability in any region of the world. People are living longer, and fewer mothers are giving birth to many children in the hopes that some might survive. And yet, the news is not all good. Recent reductions in infectious disease have not been accompanied by the same improvements in income, job opportunities, and governance that occurred with these changes in wealthier countries decades ago. There have also been unintended consequences. In this book, Thomas Bollyky explores the paradox in our fight against infectious disease: the world is getting healthier in ways that should make us worry.

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