A disease that has given globalization a bad name, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), has plagued no fewer than 30 areas in recent months. In this book, for the first time, leading scientists and researchers converge to shed light on the impacts and implications of this new global threat.

Collected together within the volume are more than 20 articles that discuss and examine the SARS outbreak from wide-ranging perspectives — political, social, economic and health. The reader is given insights into how the SARS outbreak has altered public and political understanding of the threat of infectious disease in general. There are lessons for global public health that have emerged from the response to SARS, especially as they pertain to preparedness for the next new disease.

Informative but not heavy, insightful but not overwhelming, The New Global Threat: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Its Impacts is an indispensable source of information for anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the hitherto unknown disease — students, academics and corporate leaders alike.

Highlights of the book include:

• "Fighting Infectious Diseases: One Mission, Many Agents", by Dr Shiping Tang, Deputy Director, Center for Regional Security Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
• "SARS, Anti-Populism, and Elite Lies: Diseases from Which China Can Recover", by Prof Lynn T White, Professor of Politics & International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
• "SARS and Hong Kong Culture: Some Personal Reflections", by Prof Leo Ou-fan Lee, Professor of Chinese Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
• "Facing the Unknowns of SARS in Hong Kong", by Prof KY Yuen, Head, Department of Microbiology, The Hong Kong University
• "Cracking the Genome of the SARS Virus", by Dr Lawrence W Stanton, Senior Group Leader, SARS Project Coordinator, Genome Institute of Singapore
• "Epidemiology and Control of the SARS Outbreak in Taiwan", by Prof CJ Chen, Minister of Health and Professor of Epidemiology, National Taiwan University

"... the highlights of the book are its dissection of the political and economic fallout while presenting the anatomy of the outbreak in affected countries ... it is an interesting and insightful read."