Beat the Flu: How to stay healthy through the coming bird flu pandemic by A A Avlicino (Vision paperbacks, 2005)
According to most experts, bird flu is coming. It's not a question of if, but when. Full of life-saving tips, from the best way to clean your home, and where to purchase effective air filters, to how to get hold of antiviral medication before it runs out, this book also explores what to do if society breaks down following a major pandemic.
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Everything You Need to Know About Bird Flu and What to do to Prepare for it by Jo Revill (Rodale International, 2005)
Cutting through the deluge of news stories about bird flu, this definitive guide explains why it will be so deadly if it begins to spread between humans. It looks at the anti-viral drugs that offer us short-term protection, but is also full of practical information on what people can do to protect themselves.
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Flu: The story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it by Gina Kolata (Pan, 2001)
A scientific history of the great flu epidemic of 1918 that killed at least 40 million people. The author details the science and latest understanding of flu, examines the chances of a great epidemic recurring and explores what can be done to prevent it.
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Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (Random House, 1997)
Extravagant and broad sweep through the last 13,000 years of human history, covering such subjects as ‘how farming influences disease’.
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Man and Microbes: Disease and plagues in history and modern times by Arno Karlen (Pocket Books, 1996)
A noted medical historian places recent outbreaks of deadly diseases in historical perspective, with accounts of other alarming and recurring diseases throughout history and of the ways in which humans have adapted.
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The Monster at Our Door: The global threat of avian flu by Mike Davies (The New Press, 2005)
Looks at the role of industrialised farming in the onset of avian flu and the impending flu pandemic.
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Not on the Label: What really goes into the food on your plate by Felicity Lawrence (Penguin, 2004)
Reveals how the food industry causes ill-health, environmental damage and urban blight. The author provides evidence that half of the chicken on sale in UK supermarkets is contaminated with campylobacter, which causes food poisoning and that much of the chicken we eat has been illicitly injected with pork and beef proteins.
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Six Modern Plagues: And how we are causing them by Mark Jerome Walters (Island Press, 2004)
Looks at the surprising connections between human-induced changes to the natural environment and recent epidemics, including West Nile virus, mad cow disease, HIV/AIDS, Lyme disease and SARS. In this edition he also discusses avian bird flu and argues that we must take responsibility for creating and spreading these diseases.
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