A national bestseller, the fast-paced and gripping account of the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 from acclaimed science journalist Gina Kolata, now featuring a new epilogue about avian flu.When we think of plagues, we think of AIDS, Ebola, anthrax spores, and, of course, the Black Death. But in 1918 the Great Flu Epidemic killed an estimated forty million people virtually overnight. If such a plague returned today, taking a comparable percentage of the US population with it, 1.5 million Americans would die. In Flu, Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. From Alaska to Norway, from the streets of Hong Kong to the corridors of the White House, Kolata tracks the race to recover the live pathogen and probes the fear that has impelled government policy. A gripping work of science writing, Flu addresses the prospects for a great epidemic's recurrence and considers what can be done to prevent it.

Author: Gina Kolata
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 01/09/2001
Pages: 352
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.45w x 0.86d
ISBN: 9780743203982

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 9.8
Point Value: 20
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 68831 / Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It


Review Citation(s):
Entertainment Weekly 01/19/2001 pg. 79

About the Author
Gina Kolata is a science reporter for "The New York Times" and the author of "Clone: The Road to Dolly and Sex in America." She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.