Gilsdorf's Book on Meningitis History

MAC-EPID's co-founder, Janet Gilsdorf has come out with a new book! Continual Raving: A History of Meningitis and the People Who Conquered It tells stories of how scientists across the 19th and 20th centuries defeated meningitis -- not always through flawless research, but often through a series of serendipitous events, misplaced assumptions, and flawed conclusions. The result shows not just how a disease was vanquished, but how scientific accomplishment can sometimes occur where least expected.

These stories tell gripping, human tales of how meningitis was defeated by a series of sequential but serpiginous discoveries by multiple scientists in the 19th and 20th centuries. They are highly relevant to contemporary discussions around antibiotic resistance, vaccines, the intrinsic challenges facing female scientists, and how incremental scientific progress can quickly yield seismic improvements in human health.