In conjunction with PBS, Philip J. Hilts, longtime New York Times science and health reporter, has traveled the world to visit the sites of both the greatest disease peril-where the threat of runaway outbreaks is most severe-and places in which remarkably powerful new approaches are leading to astonishing success in combating the disease menace.

Reporting on in-depth research and interviews with the dominant players, Hilts brings to life the crucial choice facing the world community. The leading nations and global organizations now have the means to win the fight against "the coming plague" if they will only join together and devote the resources to doing so. We stand at the brink of a new golden age of public health in which, if we will marshal the necessary resources, we can achieve an even more impressive defeat of the disease threat than that of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, known as the vital revolution, in which one after another deadly plague was eradicated. We can bring about a second vital revolution if we are willing to face the "shadow at our backs," as he calls it, with the same courage, conviction, and innovation of those who went before us.

But with new infectious diseases emerging and so many old ones raising their ugly heads, if we don't make that push now, we may well lose the fight. We stand at the precipice. By telling the moving stories of a host of individuals who have been plagued by the disease threat as well as the inspiring stories of the pioneers who are fighting the good fight-the researchers and "boots on the ground" who are the major forces pushing for a coordinated world campaign-Hilts brings the story of this crucial moment in world history to vivid life in a book that will be essential reading for all those concerned about this vital global challenge.