Indhold: Machupo : Bolivian hemorrhagic fever ; Health transition : the age of optimism - setting out to eradicate disease; Monkey kidneys and the ebbing tides : Marburg virus, Yellow fever, and the Brazilian meningitis epidemic ; Into the woods : Lassa fever ; Yambuku : Ebola ; The American bicentennial : swine flu and legionnaires' disease ; N'zara : Lassa, Ebola, and the developing world's economic and social policies ; Revolution : genetic engineering and the discovery of oncogenes ; Microbe magnets : urban centers of disease ; Distant thunder : sexually transmitted diseases and injecting drug users ; Hatari: vinidogodogo (Danger: a very little thing) : the origins of AIDS ; Feminine hygiene (as debated, mostly, by men) : toxic shock syndrome ; The revenge of the germs, or Just keep inventing new drugs : drug-resistant bacteria, viruses, and parasites ; Thirdworldization : the interactions of poverty, poor housing, and social despair with disease ; All in good haste : hantaviruses in America ; Nature and Homo sapiens : seal plague, cholera, global warming, biodiversity, and the microbial soup ; Searching for solutions : preparedness, surveillance, and the new understanding