Deadly Encounters

Although written from an Australian perspective this book offers a broader insight into how infectious diseases spread, how they influence human life, and how we should react to such disasters. Like many countries in the world, Australia has had to reckon with epidemics and pandemics for the last 250 years, and it has continually struggled to understand their origins. This book provides an interdisciplinary perspective of the history of disease outbreaks in Australia that combines elements of Public Health, Epidemiology, Medical Geography and History. This new edition includes analysis of the recent outbreaks of COVID-19 which have highlighted the significance of the biophysical world and how little we have learned from the past. Our most recent pandemic has demonstrated how much better our tracking of the scientific data needs to be and has shown that there is still much to learn about how we, and our governments and media, should respond. This case study of the history of Australia's response to epidemics has considerable relevance in a world increasingly confronted by these events.