Table of Contents

Contents Editor’s Foreword Preface 1 - Introduction 2.1 - Introduction 2.2 - Bacteria 2.3 - Viruses 2.5 - Fungi and worms 2.6 - Prions 3.1 - Introduction 3.2 - Making it difficult to penetrate the lines 3.3 - Behind the barriers 3.4 - Help for the defense: vaccines 3.5 - Misdirected immunity: allergy and autoimmune diseases 4.1 - Mankind 4.2 - Microbes: ancient jacks of all trades 4.3 - Cooperation, coexistence, conflict 4.4 - Pandemic, epidemic, or what, precisely? The technical jargon used by epidemiologists 4.5 - Undesirable alliances: how pathogens play a role in cancer and other diseases 5 - More Than a Body Count: The Major Infectious Diseases 5.1 - From colds to pneumonia: respiratory infections are number one 5.2 - Diarrheal diseases and food poisoning 5.3 - Children’s diseases: far more than just a difficult start 5.4 - HIV/AIDS 5.5 - Tuberculosis: the white plague 5.6 - AIDS and tuberculosis: two diseases, one patient 5.7 - Malaria 5.8 - Influenza in humans and birds 5.9 - SARS: half way around the world in twelve hours 5.10 - Life in the shadowlands: the neglected tropical diseases 6.1 - Antibiotics 6.2 - When hospitals cause sickness: nosocomial infections and antibiotic resistance 6.3 - Five kilograms of penicillin, please: antibiotics in animal breeding 7.1 - Introduction 7.2 - Vaccines for the masses 7.3 - Immunization risks: myths and truths 7.4 - Me and the rest of the world 8.1 - Introduction 8.2 - Money, health, education 8.4 - Economic strategists 8.5 - TRIPS: patent rights versus treatment rights 8.6 - Flagships of healthcare improvement 8.7 - Ambitious goals 8.8 - Theoretically no problem 8.9 - Update I: déjà vu? 8.10 - Update II: mid-point review 8.11 - Policymakers 8.12 - Finger in the wound 8.14 - Public-private partnerships (PPPs) 8.15 - Foundations 9 - Swimming Against the Tide 9.1 - The quest for blockbusters 9.2 - Economic viability 9.3 - No one needs flops 9.4 - Talking doesn’t help 9.5 - New incentives 9.6 - Pooling expertise 9.7 - A global fund as a clarion call 9.8 - Push or pull to success 9.9 - Research incubators 9.10 - In the trenches 10.1 - Introduction 10.2 - Hot spot number 1: poor and sick, sick and poor 10.3 - Hot spot number 2: catastrophes, conflicts and the threat of epidemics 10.4 - Hot spot number 3: from the world’s laboratories 10.5 - Hot spot number 4: breeding grounds for vectors 10.6 - Hot spot number 5: face to face with the wilderness 10.7 - Hot spot number 6: mankind and all creatures great and small 10.8 - The next pandemic 10.9 - Global threats call for global responses 11.1 - Controversial but convincing 11.2 - Expensive but still affordable 11.3 - Everyman’s right, everyman’s duty 11.4 - Act globally 11.5 - It can work 11.6 - Sunny with cloudy spells 11.7 - Outlook Glossary References