Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One Of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
The bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease, the Marburg virus, the Ebola virus, and HIV conjure a palpable fear because they are relatively new to us, the diseases they cause can be lethal, and there is no vaccine. The word “outbreak” brings to mind secured labs, biosafety levels, and hazmat suits. And yet, it is essentially the same type of research conducted by medical investigators during the 1920s, ‘30s, and ’40s. Polio, yellow fever, smallpox, measles, influenza, and syphilis were the great fears of that age, and the epidemiologists who studied them did so in unprotected clothing in a basic laboratory, often testing the vaccine or treatment on themselves. Essentially, medical investigation requires that a number of things come together. It takes a benefactor, a team of talented scientists, and, of course, a disease outbreak. All three would normally move independently of one another, but, like the three hands of a clock, every so often they line up perfectly.
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