6From ancient scourges to modern-day pandemics

Throughout history--even recent history--highly contagious, deadly, and truly horrible epidemics have swept through cities, countrysides, and even entire countries. Outbreak catalogs fifty of those incidents in gruesome detail, including:

• The Sweating Sickness that killed 15,000, including Henry VIII's older brother
• Syphilis, the "French Disease," which spread throughout Europe in the late fifteenth century
• The romantic disease: tuberculosis, featured in La Boheme, La Traviata, and Les Miserables
• The worldwide outbreak of influenza in 1918, which killed 3 percent of the population
• The mysterious appearance of HIV in the 1980s
• The devastating spread of Ebola in West Africa in 2014

From ancient outbreaks of smallpox and plague to modern epidemics such as SARS and Ebola, the stories capture the mystery and devastation brought on by these diseases. It's a sickeningly fun read that confirms the true definition of going viral.