Abraham, Thomas 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born July 8, 1956. Education: Madras University, B.A.; Jawaharlal Nehru University, master's degree.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Journalism and Media Studies Centre, Eliot Hall, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong; fax: 852-2858-8736. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and journalist. Hindu (newspaper in India), foreign correspondent; British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Television, commentator; South China Morning Post (newspaper in Hong Kong), editor; University of Hong Kong, director of Public Health Media Project.

WRITINGS:

Twenty-first Century Plague: The Story of SARS, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Thomas Abraham was born in 1956 and worked for many years as a foreign correspondent. In this capacity, he worked for two major Asian newspapers. For India's the Hindu, Abraham reported political and social news from locations such as Sri Lanka, England, Northern Ireland, and the former Yugoslavia. Topics he focused on included world trade negotiation, human rights issues, and arms control. In Hong Kong, Abraham worked as the editor of South China Morning Post. He also worked at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and was a commentator for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service television programs. More recently, Abraham has been the director of the Public Health Media Project at the University of Hong Kong. He is also the author of Twenty-first Century Plague: The Story of SARS, published in 2005.

In a Choice review, R. Adler described Twenty-first Century Plague as a "beautifully written book about one of the most recent public health threats to have been dreaded and reported on a global scale." Abraham's book covers the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic that spread around the world in 2003. The first case of SARS occurred in southern Asia. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it took only a few months for SARS to spread around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that more than 8,000 people were infected. Abraham's book, which Robert Dorit, writing for American Scientist, called a "ringside account," informs the public of the history of this event, as well as the politics behind it.

In an interview with Jackie Judd for Kaisernetwork.org, Abraham said one of the reasons SARS spread so quickly was the lack of communication from the Chinese government. Although Chinese doctors worked to identify SARS, the Chinese government was afraid of spreading fear among the Chinese population. So officials suppressed any news of SARS. The intention of the government, Abraham said was "to avoid any information that would cause public panic. Social stability is very important for them, so they did not want news of an unknown disease … to spread."

Abraham's book provides more than just the history of the SARS epidemic, as noted by Anne Harding, writing for Lancet. Abraham also "vividly conveys the fear and confusion" that quickly spread around the outbreak. "The book discusses important lessons learned from the SARS response and their implications for dealing with the next global disease threat," stated James M. Hughes, writing for the Journal of Clinical Investigation. One of these lessons is "the critical importance of transparency and political will."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September 1, 2005, Robert Dorit, "The Shape of Plagues to Come," p. 473.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, July 1, 2005, R. Adler, review of Twenty-first Century Plague: The Story of SARS, p. 2020.

Journal of Clinical Investigation, April, 2006, James M. Hughes, review of Twenty-first Century Plague, p. 846.

Lancet, March 12, 2005, Anne Harding, "Stalking SARS," review of Twenty-first Century Plague, p. 930.

Medical History, July 1, 2007, Sanjoy Bhattacharya, review of Twenty-first Century Plague, pp. 408-409.

New England Journal of Medicine, August 4, 2005, Suok Kai Chew, review of Twenty-first Century Plague, p. 534.

SciTech Book News, March, 2006, review of Twenty-first Century Plague,; December, 2007, review of Twenty-first Century Plague.

ONLINE

Asian Review of Books,http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/ (May 10, 2004), Peter Gordon, review of Twenty-first Century Plague.

Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong Web site,http://jmsc.hku.hk/ (November 15, 2004), Louise Wong, "Nature Is Most Potent Bio-terrorist, Students Told"; (October 30, 2007), brief biography of author.

Kaisernetwork.org,http://www.kaisernetwork.org/ (June 10, 2005), Jackie Judd, "From the Bookshelves."