Beating Back the Devil

“In her enthralling first book, Maryn McKenna takes us inside the unexplored world of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a vital but rarely discussed part of our national public health service. Without McKenna’s thorough research and lively narrative, who would have known of the crusading role the EIS has played since the 1950s in solving our most perplexing medical mysteries? In a new world of bioterror threats and harrowing viruses, McKenna’s book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the daunting medical challenges of the future.”–Marilyn W. Thompson, author of The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed
“Even people who think they know about the CDC and its elite corps of physicians, the Epidemic Intelligence Service, will be surprised by “Beating Back the Devil, ” a rare inside account of how EIS works in an age of terrorist threat. McKenna hopscotches the globe – from a malaria outbreak in Malawi to SARS in Vietnam – to bring to life some of the most compelling mysteries confronted by these fearless disease detectives.”
“In the tradition of Laurie Garrett and Richard Preston, medical journalist Maryn McKenna tells the fascinating story of some of the most intrepid medical detectives at work today: the Centers for Disease Control’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. “Beating Back the Devil” is both an accessible and detailed account of how these microbe hunters survey, contain, and combat deadly germs in the twenty-first century. It’s also a great read.”
Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., author of “When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed” In the tradition of Laurie Garrett and Richard Preston, medical journalist Maryn McKenna tells the fascinating story of some of the most intrepid medical detectives at work today: the Centers for Disease Control’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. “Beating Back the Devil” is both an accessible and detailed account of how these microbe hunters survey, contain, and combat deadly germs in the twenty-first century. It’s also a great read.
Marilyn W. Thompson, author of “The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed” In her enthralling first book, Maryn McKenna takes us inside the unexplored world of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a vital but rarely discussed part of our national public health service. Without McKenna’s thorough research and lively narrative, who would have known of the crusading role the EIS has played since the 1950s in solving our most perplexing medical mysteries? In a new world of bioterror threats and harrowing viruses, McKenna’s book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the daunting medical challenges of the future.
Robin Marantz Henig, author of “A Dancing Matrix: How Science Confronts Emerging Viruses” Even people who think they know about the CDC and its elite corps of physicians, the Epidemic Intelligence Service, will be surprised by “Beating Back the Devil, ” a rare inside account of how EIS works in an age of terrorist threat. McKenna hopscotches the globe – from a malaria outbreak in Malawi to SARS in Vietnam – to bring to life some of the most compelling mysteries confronted by these fearless disease detectives.

Maryn McKenna is an award-winning science and medical writer and author of Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (named one of the top 10 science books of 2004 by Amazon). She currently works as a contributing writer for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and is a media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and has also studied at Harvard Medical School. She lives in Minneapolis.

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