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from the publisher:
Malaria is a deadly parasitical infection with a vicious ability to mutate. Every year it kills up to 3 million people more than half of those deaths are children -- and 300 to 500 million fall ill with the disease. In the last fifteen years alone, malaria has killed at least 23 million people, while some parasitologists argue that it may have caused the death of one out of every two human beings who ever lived on the planet. As of yet, there is no cure.
Until the middle of the seventeenth century, little was understood about the nature of the disease, or how to treat it. But then a legend began to circulate about a beautiful Spanish countess, the Condesa de Chinchón, who was cured of malaria during her stay in Peru by drinking an infusion made from the bark of a miraculous tree.
The Fever Trail is the harrowing story of the search for the elusive cinchona tree -- the only source of quinine -- and the trio of intrepid British explorers who were given the task of transporting it to the colonies. On a quest that was to absorb much of their lives, Richard Spruce, Charles Ledger, and Sir Clements Markham endeavored, on separate expeditions, to rid the world of malaria. They faced the immense dangers of the uncharted mountain terrain of the Andes, the perils of untrustworthy guides, the ravages of malnutrition and disease, the difficulties of finding the variety of cinchona tree with the highest concentration of quinine in its bark, and the hazards of then smuggling its seeds and seedlings out of Peru and Bolivia.
But in spite of their valiant attempts, quinine and its chemical derivatives were successful in controlling malaria for only a limited time. Now, drug-resistant strains of the parasite have emerged, and no pharmaceutical treatment has proven to be 100 percent effective. The hunt must continue -- this time for a vaccine.
Part scientific adventure, part historical mystery, The Fever Trail is a gripping account of a deadly disease that continues to elude all efforts to contain it.
"A masterful tale of high adventure and scientific discovery." --Andrew Spielman, Professor of Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, and coauthor of MosquitoMark Honigsbaum is a writer for The Observer in London. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Sunday Times, GQ, and Vogue. A graduate of New College, Oxford, he lives in London with his wife and two children. The Fever Trail is his first book."The Fever Trail is an engaging account of one of the great sagas of plant exploration . . . It is a rich and astonishing tapestry, a story of adventure and intrigue, of wealth and power, played out against a backdrop of pharmacological wizardry and botanical splendor." --Wade Davis, Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society
"A stunning history of the hunt for a cure for malaria." --Beryl Bainbridge, The Daily Telegraph
"A travel extravaganza and . . . a learned work of social and natural history." --Andrew Barrow, The Spectator
"A fascinating story . . . Neatly written, authoritative." --Robin McKie, The Observer
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