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In 1974, a young doctor arrived at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention with one goal in mind: to help eradicate smallpox.
The only woman physician in her class in the Epidemic Intelligence
Service, a two-year epidemiology training program, Mary Guinan soon
was selected to join India's Smallpox Eradication Program, which
searched out and isolated patients with the disease. By May of
1975, the World Health Organization declared Uttar Pradash
smallpox-free. During her barrier-crossing career, Dr. Guinan met
arms-seeking Afghan insurgents in Pakistan and got caught in the
cross fire between religious groups in Lebanon. She treated some of
the first AIDS patients and served as an expert witness in defense
of a pharmacist who was denied employment for having HIV-leading to
a landmark decision that still protects HIV patients from workplace
discrimination. Randy Shilts's best-selling book on the epidemic,
And the Band Played On, features her AIDS work. In Adventures of a
Female Medical Detective, Guinan weaves together twelve vivid
stories of her life in medicine, describing her individual
experiences in controlling outbreaks, researching new diseases, and
caring for patients with untreatable infections. She offers readers
a feisty, engaging, and uniquely female perspective from a time
when very few women worked in the field. Occasionally
heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, Guinan's account of her
pathbreaking career will inspire public health students and future
medical detectives-and give all readers insight into that part of
the government exclusively devoted to protecting their health.
"A rip-roaring read."-Nature Fresh out of college in the 1960s,
Mary Guinan aspired to be an astronaut-until she learned that
NASA's astronaut program wasn't recruiting women. Instead, Guinan
went to medical school and became a disease detective with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence
Service. Selected to join India's Smallpox Eradication program,
Guinan traveled to remote villages to isolate smallpox cases and
then vaccinate all uninfected persons within a ten-mile radius. By
May 1975, the World Health Organization declared Uttar Pradesh
smallpox-free. During her barrier-breaking career, Dr. Guinan met
arms-seeking Afghan insurgents in Pakistan and got caught in the
crossfire between religious groups in Lebanon. She was one of the
first medical detectives on the ground in San Francisco at the
start of the AIDS crisis. And she served as an expert witness in a
landmark decision that still protects HIV patients from workplace
discrimination. Randy Shilts's best-selling book on the epidemic,
And the Band Played On, features her AIDS work, as does the HBO
movie of the same name. In Adventures of a Female Medical
Detective, Guinan weaves together twelve vivid stories of her life
in medicine, describing her individual experiences in controlling
outbreaks, researching new diseases, and caring for patients the
world over. Occasionally heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious,
Guinan's account of her pathbreaking career will inspire public
health students and future medical detectives-and give all readers
insight into that part of the government exclusively devoted to
protecting their health.
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