Reflection Paper: The Ghost Map

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Steven Johnson main objective for writing this book was to explore how cholera was the first “modern” disease. The book is being assigned for a public health course because it is an interesting book that can easily be used to teach principles of epidemiology (Johnson, 2006). I felt curious and excited reading this book, as well as sad when I realized how many people have died from cholera in the past. The information I found most interesting was the list of questions one should ask when investigating an epidemic, like who are those who have been affected and what geographical areas? Information that has been least interesting to me so far is things about cholera’s history through time in different parts of the world.

The main emotions I felt personally about what I read from this book was burning curiosity, intense sadness and anger, and then a bit of love. Curiosity is the main emotion I felt because I was always wondering what happened to these people who didn’t live long enough to write their stories. Sadness is also an emotion that came up many times during this book because in the beginning of the story we learn about how people would die from this disease, but then we see some cases where it isn’t true and that it can hit anybody no matter who they are. In addition to these emotions there were two other emotions that appeared during this book: anger and love. When reading this book, I feel overwhelmed by the number of people who died from cholera, and by the thought that it is so easily transmitted. The most surprising thing to me is how one person can make such a big impact on science, especially one person who is not a scientist but an engineer.

I find it easy to relate this book to what I usually read, but if I want to relate it to a movie, I can easily do that since the movie “contagion” is a story about epidemic. I rate this book 4 out of 5 because it is an interesting and very informative book, but I think the author should have included a glossary at the end of the book so that he would not repeat words or phrases so often. This book relates to other books I have read both in content and style. A book called The Hot Zone also deals with epidemics, though it is much more frightening because it explores Ebola and Marburg virus. This book relates to movies in that there has been a movie called Contagion which also deals with epidemics (though the spread of disease in the movie is caused by a virus) (Contagion n.d). The other book that relates to this one is called “The coming plague”, which I read last semester. It was also a science book, though more of a medical textbook than a historical one. In my opinion it was not as engaging to read as the ghost map, but I did learn from it some important epidemiological knowledge.

The piece of information I learnt and find most interesting was how the simple map encouraged people to reconsider their attitudes towards disease. The Ghost Map is a well-known story as it was a popular novel in 2008 written by Erik Larson. The book chronicles the short history of London’s map of smallpox and how it led to the modern understanding of infectious diseases. What is interesting about this piece of information? For starters, you can consider that after reading this piece, I may have changed my attitude towards learning about infectious diseases. This is an example that reflects my new found knowledge and perceptions on life after reading the book.

On the other hand, the piece of information that I found least interesting was the discovery that physicians contaminated one of their patients. The discovery of the map facilitated the process of disputing the medical theories about contagion and disease at that time. This was a controversial piece of information as well, but I found it less interesting because I did not learn much about it in the book.

But another interesting piece of information has to do with an idea that they had when they used color coded maps to keep track of smallpox cases during one epidemic in London between 1721 and 1730. There were many other cities throughout Europe that used a similar system to keep track of their epidemics. These maps are considered innovative and remarkable ways to track epidemics because they helped people understand where people had contracted contagious diseases.

There are some things I want to do when reading this book that would be useful for me and for the class: Notice how the author writes about different kinds of people (scientists, politicians, businessmen). Notice what are the differences and similarities between different chapters of this book. Some chapters can be read on their own and others seem connected with each other. Try to find a pattern in the book, what is it that connects the different chapters. Do you have theories, opinions or ideas on how this book can be used/for? How it can develop/improve our systems for diseases and health care?

Ghost Map is the true story of London’s most terrifying epidemic of bubonic plague (Black Death): an exquisite corpse ghoul that walked through the streets at night dragging a lantern along behind him with his tail. In 1854, an outbreak of “Black Jack” swept through London’s poor and crowded slums, spreading fear and death like wildfire.

This book has been assigned for this public health course because it can help us understand the past and how things were organized over 150 years ago. It is important for us to understand history so that we make progress in the future so we don’t repeat history.

There are many examples in this book where new inventions were made that helped with the spread of disease, such as Pasteur’s theory on germs being spread by bacteria. We could make comparisons between then and now, what research has been done over the past 50-100 years that could have helped Londoners prevent the Black plague of 1854?

What we can learn from history is ‘what not to do’ when it comes to diseases and health care. We can look at the mistakes that people made, or we can look at the good parts of history and see what they did right. Queens Square in London was a place that people went to when they got sick. The rich and poor were treated there. It was one of the places where you could get medicine or food if you couldn’t afford anything else. New York City had a similar thing called Bellevue Hospital, but this hospital was for the rich and poor; however, there were no free hospitals for the poor in New York. They had to go to their families if they were too ill or go to Bellevue if their families didn’t want them anymore.

The book unfolds like a detective story, where the author seeks out reasons for why this disease has spread throughout London at that specific time. One thing that surprised me is how the main cause of cholera outbreak was so well-known, but it still spread due to human behavior. It was hard to understand the difference between what causes the disease and what causes its symptoms.

References

Johnson, S. (2006). The ghost map: The story of London’s most terrifying epidemic–and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world. Penguin.

Before you continue to Google Search. (2022). Retrieved 4 May 2022, from https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TdISc8rLy8yYPTiTM7PK0lMz8zPAwBaiwfv&q=contagion&oq=Contagion&aqs=chrome.1.0i355i512j46i512j0i512l8.3178j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8