China Syndrome: The True Story of the 21st Century's First Great Epidemic.

CHINA SYNDROME: The True Story of the 21st Century's First Great Epidemic KARL TARO GREENFELD

In 2003, word began to spread of a mysterious respiratory ailment affecting thousands of people in China and killing hundreds. The disease was severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Greenfeld was working in Hong Kong for Time Asia at the time of the outbreak and thus witnessed the secrecy and panic that accompanied the disease outbreak. In his disturbing account of that time, he explains how the highly contagious illness, originally mistaken for a mutant form of influenza, got away from health authorities. Despite the rising threat in the early days of SARS, most of the Chinese population remained unaware of the epidemic because of a government-engineered media blackout. Despite the efforts of the Chinese Ministry of Health to contain SARS, or at least news of its emergence, the media soon realized that the epidemic was overwhelming hospitals with very sick people. Greenfeld chronicles the frustrating work of medical experts as they raced to isolate the source of SARS and answer fundamental questions about the disease. HarperCollins, 2006, 464 p., hardcover, $25.95.