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New book explains disease A-Z BOWLING GREEN, O -- The subject of human disease is vast and ever changing, and can be hard to keep up with for the average
reader or researcher. A new book edited by Dr. Kenneth Kiple, Distinguished University Professor of history at Bowling Green
State University, provides an overview of the diseases of the past and present. "
The Cambridge Historical Dictionary of Disease," published this month by Cambridge University Press, distills information
from Kiple's earlier, massive work, "The Cambridge World History of Human Disease," first released in 1993 and reissued in
2001. It also provides updated information on such diseases of recent interest as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS),
Alzheimer's disease, Ebola virus disease and tuberculosis.
The paperback contains short, alphabetical entries from more than 100 medical and social scientists around the world written
more in layman's terms than the original, Kiple said.
In addition to serving as a resource for university medical history students, the book will appeal to the average reader,
he said. "I think we're getting a public that's more educated and wants to know more."
The incidence of disease, while never static, has risen along with increased contact among a growing population of people
and animals worldwide, Kiple said. "
Every improvement in transportation and communication abets the spread of disease. There are no more 'island diseases' and
no such thing as 'virgin soil epidemics' anymore," he said.
Along with this movement comes a greater chance of gene mutations, which can create new varieties of disease and more difficult
ones to treat, he added. "Out of all those mutations you could get a particularly nasty one," he said.
Unnatural practices such as the feeding of animal products to cows in which "you're turning cows into cannibals," he said,
have also led to the rise of diseases such as mad cow disease. He cited an earlier human example found among people in New
Guinea beginning in the 1950s, in which tribesmen practiced ritual cannibalism as part of their funerary practices, with disastrous
results.
Most diseases have their roots in animals, he said, noting the recent discovery that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
probably originated with civet cats, prized as a delicacy in the areas of China near the Himalayas. Human contact with monkeys
in Africa resulted in the development of AIDS, and movement along the so-called AIDS Highway encouraged the spread of the
disease within Africa and around the world. "
The chances are very good that such diseases will keep coming so long as we keep putting pressure on the world's rain forests,"
Kiple warned. "There are a lot of viruses there looking to become a disease."
Kiple began his work on medical history as a doctoral student, then proceeded to study nutrition and later, food. His exhaustive
"Cambridge World History of Food," published in 2000, has received worldwide attention.
(Posted June 03, 2003 )
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