Rabid, Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
Rabid, Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
7 Rating(s)
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Rabid
A Cultural History of the Worlds Most Diabolical Virus

Author: Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

Narrator: Johnny Heller

Unabridged: 8 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/19/2012

Categories: Nonfiction, Medical


Synopsis

A maddened creature, frothing at the mouth, lunges at an innocent victim-and with a bite, transforms its prey into another raving monster. It's a scenario that underlies our darkest tales of supernatural horror, but its power derives from a very real virus, a deadly scourge known to mankind from our earliest days. In this fascinating exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years in the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. A disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans, rabies has served as a symbol of savage madness and inhuman possession throughout history. Today, its history can help shed light on the wave of emerging diseases-from AIDS to SARS to avian flu-with origins in animal populations. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind's oldest and most fearsome foes. "An elegant exploration of the science behind one of the most horrible ways to die."-Chris Anderson, New York Times bestselling author

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dr. Appu on February 12, 2024

Which is the fatal virus with very few treatment options? The answer will be rabies virus. In this book, the authors tell us about the history of rabies, right from prehistoric times. Reading about the virus and other pathological organisms can be a dry area for some readers, especially if you are so......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on June 15, 2024

Rabies, a disease caused by the Lyssavirus, is one of the oldest and most dreaded afflictions in recorded history. The virus, which is transmitted by the bite of an infected creature, creeps along the nerves to the brain - after which it's invariably fatal. The 'Lyssavirus' that causes rabies Rabies......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on October 26, 2017

Click here to watch a video featuring this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.......more

Goodreads review by Pam on February 16, 2024

This book just didn’t appeal to me. Granted it is a terrible disease. I would have enjoyed more science and less time on vampire/werewolf/zombie movies and books. I get it, rabies seems like such a nightmarish aberration. Dogs (historically the main carrier of this disease), have lived semi comforta......more

Goodreads review by Jay on November 24, 2016

A reasonably good "cultural history" of rabies but one feels there was so much left unexamined. Chapters deal with vampires and werewolves and their relationship to the disease, the rabies scare of the 1970s in the UK, recent treatment and discoveries, the work of Pasteur in finding a cure, and vari......more