Virus Hunter

As past chief of the Disease Assessment Division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and as the current chief of the Viral Special Pathogens Branch at the Centers for Disease Control, Peters has enjoyed an impressive career studying and combating deadly viruses around the world, from various South American hemorrhagic viruses to the Ebola virus and those causing Rift Valley fever. Indeed, Peters was the officer in charge of containing the Ebola outbreak in a Reston, Va., primate facility chronicled in The Hot Zone. With such a wealth of material to draw upon, Peters's autobiography is fascinating--at least when it focuses on science and epidemiology. When it detours into his non-professional personal life and the numerous divorces and remarriages of his colleagues, it is plain tedious. The final two chapters detail, with frightening specificity, preparations undertaken to combat chemical and biological threats posed by Iraq during the Gulf War, the very real possibility of chemical and biological terrorism and the increased likelihood of deadly epidemics arising from our ongoing disruptions of natural ecosystems. Written with the aid of Olshaker (MindHunter), this book's prose is overblown at times, but its portentous message is always perfectly clear. Major ad/promo; author tour. (May)