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

Desowitz, Robert S. W.W. Norton & Company. New York. 1997

We have long believed that our sanitized Western world is safe from the microbes and parasites of the tropics. Not so--nor ever was it so--according to Robert S. Desowitz. The story of how parasites arrived on our shores is a fascinating mix of history and scientific adventure and includes the medical effects of the slave trade, how the World Wars helped spread disease, and why ecological devastation helps spread these deadly diseases.