Arts & Life
Germ Warfare
Ann Arbor author-physician writes about a world facing dangerous microbes.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
Ann Arbor
oon after the recent tsunami
struck Asia and Africa, a
Newsweek reporter called Ann
Arbor. The magazine writer needed
an academic expert to comment on
the impact the massive death and
destruction might have on public
health in the United States.
The reporter's specific concern had
to do with contagious and infectious
diseases and whether the microbes
could move into America. The expert
to be questioned was Howard Markel,
physician and author of When Germs
Travel (Pantheon; $25).
Markel was reassuring.
"The diseases that people in the
tsunami-torn countries are most wor-
ried about can be managed easily in a
developed country," explains Markel,
a University of Michigan professor
specializing in the history of medicine
as well as pediatrics and communica-
ble diseases.
"The biggest threat to tsunami vic-
tims right now is diarrheal disease
because the storm and its aftermath
have so disrupted the steady flow of
clean water. If tsunami survivors with
those problems came into this coun-
try, we could probably diagnose and
treat them before they had a chance
to infect others.
"There are mosquito-borne diseases,
such as malaria, that can develop
post-tsunami because there are going
to be lots of stagnant pools of water,
where mosquitoes multiply and
thrive. Those are big problems around
the world, but I don't see these travel-
ing outside that area."
Markel is less reassuring when it
comes to some of the diseases covered
in his book, particularly the ones that
show respiratory symptoms. While he •
explains that tuberculosis poses the
biggest threat to public health around
the world, he also makes clear how
informed concern can help limit the
spread of it and other communicable
illnesses, even with the accelerated
potential harm due to international
migration and transportation.
The epidemics that Markel covers
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2005
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in historic context — tuberculosis,
bubonic plague, trachoma, typhus,
cholera and AIDS — are explained in
part by referencing individuals who
suffered both with infirmities and
social stigma as a result of others'
fears of transmission. For instance, he
recalls a rabbi with the eye infection
trachoma and how that affected his
immigrant status.
"When I write a book or an article,
I try to tell a story that will inform
and enlighten," Markel says. "As a
professor and a physician, I'm always
teaching, and I've learned over the
years that people tend to understand
things in terms of stories."
Testament and ancient Greek texts.
AS I thought about writing how peo-
ple are stigmatized by infectious dis-
eases, I began reading annual reports
of the New York City Department of
Health."
Markel put his focus on immigrants
because of the social issues they con-
fronted with or without
disease.
wHEN
p ms
TR AVEL .
The Lead-Up Years
Markel, 44, grew up in Oak Park and
Southfield, celebrating his bar mitz-
vah at Congregation B'nai David
and graduating from Southfield
Six Major
Lathrup High School. He received a
Epidemics NH
Have ihe
Invaded :America Since 190 ancl
bachelor's degree in English litera-
Pears They
Have linteashed
ture and a medical degree at U-M
and went on to complete his pedi-
atrics training at the Johns
fiCIWAP13 N1ARKZL
Hopkins University School of
Medicine in Baltimore, where he
also earned a doctorate in the his-
Above: "When
tory of science, medicine and
Germs Travel" comes out in
technology. Markel joined the U-
paperback
this spring; Markers
M faculty in 1993.
next
book
deals
with addiction.
When Germs Travel is based on
research Markel has been doing
Right: Dr. Howard Markel- "I
since 1990. His interest in com-
look at literature, history and med-
municable diseases and the social
icine as similar enterprises trying to
reaction to people suffering with
understand the human condition."
them came about while working
with HIV/AIDS patients.
"I was hearing lots of questions
from patients concerning whether
Quarantine, an earlier
they would be quarantined," Markel
book, tells about the infec-
recalls. "I was seeing many gay men
tions brought to this country by
and intravenous drug users, two
Russian Jews and gave him a chance
groups stigmatized for many reasons
to explore his own family roots in
long before they came to our
Eastern Europe. When Germs Travel,
HIV/AIDS clinic. It was not an
which covers the years 1880-1924
unreasonable leap for these people to
and post- 1965, provides a broader
think that the infectious diseases
look at immigration and disease.
would separate them from the rest of
Markel has not limited his writing
the community.
to communicable afflictions. Married
"I became very interested in the
and the father of two, he has co-writ-
social institution of quarantine, which ten parenting books, including The
has a long history. You can find evi-
H.L. Mencken Baby Book, The
dence of quarantine, separating the ill Portable Pediatrician and The Practical
from the healthy, in the Old
Pediatrician: The A to Z Guide to Your
Child's Health, Behavior and Safety.
Writing Enthusiast
When he is not working on a book,
Markel writes articles for nationally
circulated magazines and newspapers.
"Writing and medicine always have
gone hand in hand with me," says
Markel, a member of the board of
directors of the National Yiddish
Book Center and supporter of the
Jewish Community Center of
Washtenaw County. "I look at liter-
ature, history and medicine as simi-
lar enterprises trying to understand
the human condition. They use dif-
ferent tools, but they're trying to put
together a story based on informa-
tion."
For his next book, Markel will con-
tinue with medicine and its relation-
ship to social issues. While he will
cover new research in the physiology
of addiction, he also will review how
attitudes toward addiction have
changed over the years. He remains
fascinated with the stories of people
he has met — those who overcome
substance abuse as
well as those who suc-
cumb.
When Germs Travel
will be out this spring
in paperback.
"The idea that
germs travel is some-
thing we all need to
be thinking about,"
says Markel, who
would like to see col-
laborative worldwide
efforts to control dis-
eases before they
become problems.
"After an epidemic has been con-
tained or subsided on its own, we
tend to go on our way and forget
about it, but the germs don't forget.
They are always there, and they can
reconfigure, mutate or spread so we
always have to keep our guard up.
"As doctors, health professionals or
citizens, we have to let our legislators
know that we think it's important to
have epidemiologists and inspectors
in the field. We never really conquer
germs. The best we can hope to do is
wrestle them to a draw." ❑