Is it true that Christopher Columbus brought a new type of syphilis to Europe? What does the Lewis family's child and the eleventh President of the United States have in common? Are tuberculosis and vampires related? Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen's book is a fascinating illustrated history of infectious disease epidemics: how they arise, how they spread, how we can diagnose them, and how we rush to destroy them before they destroy us. Plague, smallpox, leprosy, typhoid, rabies, measles, anthrax, hepatitis, Ebola fever, HIV, coronavirus - how successful is humanity in dealing with these diseases and is there a chance of defeating them once and for all?