Disease ecology : an introduction /

This scholarly work is the valiant effort of a professional geographer to describe the patterns of diseases and their changes over time throughout the world. The first part of the text describes diseases of the Western World; the second part covers diseases of the Third World. Each of the two parts consists of seven chapters, with an introductory chapter providing the concepts and problems covered in the book; a concluding chapter explores links between disease ecology and that of the health care and health education available in the area. This concise but informative and intelligent book is loaded with ecological data and is abundantly illustrated by maps, diagrams, and tables. An extensive bibliography of 60 pages provides all the reading material, through 1986, that anyone interested in the field, but particularly any novice, would find extremely useful. A well-thought-out and detailed subject index makes this an easy-to-use reference for anyone interested in the rapid recovery of selected information in the field. This is an erudite volume in the relatively poorly covered domain that encompasses geography, ecology, and medicine. As such it is a unique book that is clearly the love affair as well as the intellectual output of an exceptionally well qualified author. Lower-division through graduate collections. -G. Eknoyan, Baylor College of Medicine