Review by Booklist Review
With over 25 years at the helm of Share Our Strength, an organization dedicated to eliminating childhood hunger, Shore can be considered something of an expert on social entrepreneurs. Defined as people determined to make nonprofit organizations self-sustaining by creating markets for their goods and services, social entrepreneurs are resetting the boundaries of what once were thought of as charities. Like their business counterparts, social entrepreneurs possess great imagination plus the indomitable, never-say-die spirit necessary to achieve what heretofore had been unattainable. Shore's prime example is scientist/physician/researcher/visionary Stephen Hoffman, who bears every mark of someone who can succeed where no one else has. Hoffman, honcho at Sanaria Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, is this close to perfecting a vaccine that promises to virtually eliminate malaria, a disease that infects an estimated 500 million people per year, and kills upwards of 3,000 children a day. Shore spares no superlatives in describing Hoffman, his work, and that of his counterparts in this worthy chronicle.--Chavez, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In his latest book Shore, founder of Share our Strength, gives a stirring account of the determined efforts to end the global malaria epidemic. His journey began on a 2002 visit to an Ethiopian school funded by his foundation, where he formed a deep bond with a young girl who would soon die of malaria. Her death brought to his attention the human cost of the pervasive spread of malaria, a disease that is difficult to fight in part because it quickly adapts resistance to drugs. He began investigating the potential for developing a vaccine, which led him to Dr. Stephen Hoffman, among others, whose relentless pursuit of a vaccine "may be not only our best hope for eradicating malaria, but also our best modern example of how imagination...can lead to breakthroughs." Hoffman has developed a system to extract parasites from the salivary gland of infected mosquitoes which, when irradiated, are injected into the veins of subjects to create immunity. Shore (The Light of Conscience) describes Hoffman's efforts as "the intersection of the man and the moment," a model of social entrepreneurship which marries private and non-profit enterprise, enabling modern philanthropy to supplant the role of lagging governments. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Founder of Share Our Strength, a nonprofit devoted to eliminating hunger in children, Shore was deeply moved by the death of a child he encountered in Ethiopia. He resolved to investigate the scientific work conducted to fight malaria and other tropical diseases and to explore the qualities of individuals and organizations that are key to success against varied health and social problems often rejected as unprofitable, quixotic, and, ultimately, hopeless. Shore spotlights Steve Hoffman as the exemplar of the game-changing scientist pursuing development of a malaria vaccine. Malaria is caused by a parasite transmitted to humans by the Anopheles mosquito, but vaccines against parasites have long been considered impossible. Shore leads his readers to hope that the synergy of creative researchers like Hoffman and the targeted funding of innovative nonprofits will be victorious in the fight against malaria and result in success against a host of social and health problems plaguing the poor and voiceless. VERDICT This well-written description of the ravages of tropical diseases and current efforts to combat them and the trials and triumphs of one particular scientist will enthrall interested readers.-Kathy Arsenault, St. Petersburg, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Share Our Strength founder Shore (The Light of Conscience: How a Simple Act Can Change Your Life, 2004, etc.) examines a handful of philanthropic innovators in the fight against malaria.The author profiles the imaginative and unreasonable men and women who are battling malaria around the world. He looks closely at Steve Hoffman, who heads a private firm developing a whole but weakened malaria parasite vaccine. The steps require breeding mosquitoes infected with the parasite, dissecting out the parasites from the insects' salivary glands, irradiating them, assuring they are free of contaminants and then preserving them for use as inoculants to trigger an immune response. It's an impressive technological feat, but the praise heaped on Hoffman is off-putting, as are the author's frequent repetitions of data and background information. While Shore emphasizes a malaria vaccine as the Holy Grail, he admires an innovator who is using microbes to generate inexpensive versions of artemisinin, a current treatment. Nor does he disparage RTS,S, another vaccine candidate currently in trials in Africa, or the use of insecticide-treated bed nets. But issues remain, including the need for good governance, infrastructure and education in the African countries most afflicted by the diseasedilemmas ably chronicled by Sonia Shah in The Fever (2010). There are also significant scientific hurdles, as too little is understood about malaria immunity. Hoffman's vaccine passed safety tests but has yet to prove efficacious. Finally, Shore writes that we need to rethink philanthropy. There's no question that Bill Gates has been an important player, but Shore argues that nonprofits must become less dependent on donors and more self-sustaining by being market-oriented. He cites achievements of a nonprofit pharmaceutical company developing drugs for neglect diseases and Hoffman's intention of marketing his vaccine to tourists and the military while making it available in poor countries.Aside from the fulsome hero-worship, Shore provides solid information on malaria research, along with provocative views on "social entrepreneurship."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
