Perspective

The book is presented primarily in third person perspective, since it is a series of stories about the fight against various viruses, bacterial infections, and parasites around the world. There are tens of stories told in the book, and each tale includes both third person explanations of the disease being discussed and the situation at hand, as well as first person accounts of the individuals' own experiences. These third person accounts help the read to understand the political, economical, and social elements of the disease, without a first person bias. At the same time, the first person accounts help to explain the realities of the situations, as seen by the doctors and scientists who studied the diseases. Both elements are crucial to Garrett's primary focus, that of giving a multiple level understanding of ecology and microbiology in a way that helps readers fully understand all the elements at...