Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria?: Torrid Diseases in a Temperate World

by Robert S. Desowitz, Desowitz

Traces the origins of tropical diseases that have appeared in the United States, including the Ebola virus, yellow fever, and the Mexican pig tapeworm

Genres: Nonfiction, Medicine, Science, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Kayla Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall a disappointing book for Robert Desowitz. My favorite non-fiction book is his New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers. This book focuses more on the political side of diseases than the science behind the diseases. It was interesting to a degree, but the chapter on yellow fever was so lengthy and bogged the reader down on political and relationship details that affected the solution to the disease. A few chapters were interesting, but my favorite chapter was basically a recap on the chapter in New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers that ultimately named that book. If you are more interested in the politics of public health, this book is for you.

I will say that Desowitz was very insightful in his assumptions throughout the book of a potential new disease, or how rapid and devastating new diseases are, as I write this review in January of 2021 having just seen a small outbreak in China turn into a global pandemic in under 6 months.

[Nola · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Desowitz goes over the evidence for the origin and history of several diseases, including malaria, worm infestations, yellow fever, and syphylis, of which there are actually four different kinds. I didn't know anything about hookworm, and had never heard of John Rockefeller's campaign against hookworm in the southern United States. Rockefeffer's foundation also had a campaign against yellow fever, which apparently succeeded by inplementing simple mosquito control measures. But malaria, which I didn't know ever even existed in the US, lasted much longer here, up until World War II. As usual,Desowitz covers a lot of ground, and I found myself having to go back and look up things I had remembered wrong or not at all.

[Janelle Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In pursuit of clearing up my currently-reading stack before the New Year, I slogged through the remainder of this tome tonight. Part epidemiologic exposition, part light-hearted scientific what-if, it's of uneven quality and interest. The most fascinating fact, for me, was the realization that malaria was once endemic in New York, even upstate. The author credits better sanitation and DDT with it's eventual disappearance (I raised an eyebrow at his assertation that DDT was unilaterally a good thing). However, he admits that in other countries, England for example, malaria, yellow fever, and other "tropical diseases" also were once endemic and disappeared without any concerted public health campaigns, and there is no logical explanation that he knows of for why this happened.

In summary: occasional crude humor, occasional scientific erudition, overall an interesting read for anyone living or traveling in the tropical regions of the world (including the southern USA).

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

How culture, climate and travel have served as vectors for communicable diseases. Some surprises, but mostly recap of the biggest killers with an odd, occasional fictional personalization to the narrative.

[Oconnor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desowitz is a witty science writer that makes it easy to understand the mechanics of parasitic diseases. This is not a book for the squeamish. It was written in 1997, which makes it especially interesting to read in 2017. First, because it predates the explosion of DNA information that is available to scientists now. Second, because the forecast it has for the impact the global warming will have on the insect born diseases certainly is coming to pass in our current world.

Here is a typical passage from the book that makes it such a compelling read:

I remember reading, many years ago, Byron's poem "Don Juan." For some reason the only line that was fixed in my memory (and probably not with faithful accuracy) is, "What the gods call gallantry and men adultery is much more frequent where the climate's sultry." ... The phenomenon Byron alludes to can be expanded to include a panoply of creatures, with and without backbones, who become sexually aroused, more reproductive, when temperature rises.

[Aathavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book thinking that I would learn a little about tropical diseases. I did that and much more - I learnt about the migration of masses of humans and animals over millions of years, how the politics and fates of entire continents even now has been shaped by simple parasites - right from how yellow fever gained America the Louisiana purchase to how ring worm and malaria may have cost the south the war. There is much much more. This book reads great like a detective novel.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as entertainingly readable as the New Guinea Tapeworm book, but good enough. History of how the transmission and causative agents of some infections diseases were discovered. I was struck by how very recent (in terms of human history) these discoveries are. Source: library book sale.

[Michelle m · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great work on syphilis.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look at migrations--both human and epidemiological.