In the Blink of an Eye The Deadly Story of Epidemic Meningitis [Paperback]

This book?is an account?of a major historical event, in the world of medicine. As the son of one of the lead scientists who developed the vaccine for meningococcal meningitis,?Andrew Artenstein has a unique perspective on the story. In the Blink of an Eye shares his experience.Written by the son of one of the lead scientists involved, this book offers a firsthand account of the development of the meningococcal meningitis vaccine, one of the most important historical events in the world of medicine.Origins.- The Art and Science of Germs.- A Singular Disease.- A Very Mortal Disease.- Early Approaches at Therapy.- Antibiotics and Survival of the Fittest.- A Brief History of Vaccines.- That Soulble Specific Substance.- Towards a Vaccine.- Success for Half.- The Future of a Killer.

Describing more than two centuries of epidemic meningitis, In the Blink of an Eye introduces a deadly and frightening bacterial infection of the brainone that afflicts healthy children and young adults in dramatic fashion, often changing or taking lives in just hours or days. ?Meningococcal meningitis is the culpritcausing sporadic cases as well as explosive, unpredictable outbreaks of disease throughout the worldleading to the deaths of dozens to hundreds of thousands every year. ?Beginning with the case of a healthy teenage boy who rapidly succumbs to the disease, the book traces meningitis through its various social contexts.? From the acceptance of the germ theory of disease and the birth of the sister sciences of microbiology and immunology in the nineteenth century to the modern molecular era, the story traverses more than 200 years of medical history. ?It leads us through the early descriptions of the disease, its impact on military forces, large outbreaks of meningitis in Africa and elsewhere, and the evolution of approaches to its treatment, control, and prevention. ?In so doing, we witness the development of modern medical research and education, the disl“f