About the book
Journalist Sonia Shah traces malaria from its emergence 500,000 years ago through its effect on human history and the long effort to defeat it. She covers the genetic defenses humans evolved against it, such as sickle cell disease, its part in the decline of Rome, the doomed Darien scheme in Panama and the campaign against it during construction of the Panama Canal. She also follows quinine, DDT, the worldwide elimination plan funded under Eisenhower and the Chinese research that produced artemisinin. Shah adds her own reporting from places where the disease is endemic, including Panama, Malawi, Cameroon and India.
Bill Gates called it probably the best pick for anyone reading a single book on malaria, praising how it covers the full history of the disease without burying readers in data.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Bill Gates (CEO/Microsoft)
If you want to read just one book about malaria, The Fever is probably the best choice. Author Sonia Shah doesn’t overwhelm you with data and analytics, but she does cover the whole history of the disease, which—as the title suggests—goes back further than you might think. The book was published in 2010, so it’s not totally up to date (most notably, we’ve made progress with rolling out bed nets since then). But it’s a great overview of malaria, its impact, and the solutions to it.
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