The monster at our door : the global threat of avian flu / Mike Davis.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface : Pieta -- 1. Evolution's fast lane -- 2. The virulence of poverty -- 3. The wrong lessons -- 4. Birds of Hong Kong -- 5. A messy story -- 6. Pandemic surprise -- 7. The triangle of doom -- 8. Plague and profit -- 9. Edge of the abyss -- 10. Homeland insecurity -- 11. Structural contradictions -- 12. The Titanic paradigm -- Conclusion : year of the rooster.

"In this urgent and frightening book, Mike Davis reconstructs the scientific and political history of a viral apocalypse in the making, exposing the central roles of burgeoning slums, agribusiness, the fast-food industries, and corrupt governments in creating the ecological conditions for the emergence of this new plague. He points to the almost complete absence of vaccines and antiviral drugs for the poor of the underdeveloped world in the event of an erupting pandemic. Meanwhile, with profit-hungry drug companies unwilling to invest in stockpiles and the Bush administration diverting massive resources to deal with the hypothetical threat of bioterrorism, severe shortages of vital flu shots are likely in wealthy countries too, with the deadliest of consequences."--BOOK JACKET.