Book excerpt: More than 40 deadly new diseases -- including Marburg, AIDS, & SARS -- have evolved in the past several decades, & 20 older scourges -- including polio, cholera, & TB -- have returned. Unprecedented levels of travel & trade carry microbes around the globe in greater numbers & at higher speeds than ever before. Yet public health systems around the world have deteriorated. The good news is that a host of innovative & simple & cost-effective programs for combating the disease threat on the ground have been perfected. This book tells the inspiring stories of the researchers who have innovated the new approaches, as well as the leading thinkers within the global org. who are the major forces pushing for a coordinated world campaign.