How Pathogenic Viruses Think: Making Sense of Virology: .

by Lauren M. Sompayrac

Over the past decade, the amount of data on viruses has grown dramatically. How can a virology student possibly make sense of all this information? In How Pathogenic Viruses Think, Second Edition, Dr. Sompayrac introduces an “organizing principle” – a paradigm to use to cut through all the details and focus on what’s important. He demonstrates the use of this paradigm by “interviewing” twelve medically important viruses. During these interviews, each virus is encouraged to disclose not only what it does, but why it does it. And when a “talking virus” reveals its secrets, they are hard to forget! How Pathogenic Viruses Think covers the essential elements of virus-host interactions with descriptive graphics, helpful mnemonic tactics for retaining the information, and brief reviews of important concepts. It is an ideal book to help medical, science, and nursing students make sense of this complex subject. I always ask the viruses I interview, “How do you attack your hosts, and why have you chosen that route?” Flu I favor the respiratory route. Okay, but why? For example, why not enter via the digestive tract? Flu Are you kidding me? Do I look like a dumb virus to you? My Uncle Harold tried the digestive tract once, and got as far as the stomach before the acid in there ate him alive! Not me. I take the easy way in. The respiratory route of infection provides direct access to my favorite target cells – the epithelial cells which line the human airway.

Genres: Medical, Science, Biology

170 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2002

Reviews

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book written in language that's easy to understand. I wish more textbook authors would write like this. I think more students would actually read their homework assignments. :)

I have gained a new understanding and respect for my immune system as well as the viruses it combats. Now I know why my body runs a fever when I have a cold and understand why I shouldn't stop the fever unless it gets into the moderate or high range. I used to take a fever reducer at the slightest sign of a fever.

Vaccinations make sense to me now, how they really work and how scientists learn to make them. I feel able to make better decisions about vaccines and when they would be helpful to me.

This is a short book, and I'd recommend it for anyone who is curious about how the body works and why we still don't have a vaccine for the common cold.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a bit of a reference book, but is amazing at that. it takes the perspective of the virus, doing what it needs to do to make it -- replicate in a host, spread to a new host, and evade host defense systems. in this framework, I learned to respect and admire the simple virus for the myriad ways they have learned to solve these three problems. I'll never be done reading this book, I just finally decided to mark it read and give it it's due credit. Sompayrac has others in this series. I have the ones on cancer and the immune system. they're also great. All are condensed, simplified, entry level but with enough depth to feel solid. Everyone could get something out of these, even without a scientific background, just by letting the esoteric language and acronyms go overhead when necessary while staying with the overarching framework of the book.