Book Review: The tale of a man, a worm and a snail: The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative
Professor Alan Fenwick OBE’s new book, The tale of a man, a worm and a snail: The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, charts the authors formative years, his longstanding career as a leading pioneer in the control of neglected tropical diseases and his enduring passion for alleviating schistosomiasis in Africa. J. Russell Stothard, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, reviews the book.
A new 275-page book entitled "The tale of a man, a worm and a snail: The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative" written by Professor Alan Fenwick OBE, with the help of Wendie Norris and Becky McCall, is part autobiography part scientific narrative.
It charts Alan's story of his formative years, his longstanding career as a leading pioneer in the control of neglected tropical diseases and his enduring passion for alleviating schistosomiasis in Africa. Numerous personal anecdotes, often humorous, alongside his and his team's wider reflections of medicine in the tropics are weaved therein.
Alan's story is engaging and enjoyable. When taken as a whole, it is an exemplar of Pasteur's adage that chance favours the prepared mind, or in Alan's own words "I was in the right place at the right time and fortunate enough to have made friends in the right places".
To me, his inspiring lesson is to pluck up the courage, throughout the many dimensions of one's life, and seize those opportunities that pass us by and try to do some good. Not so easy when set against the complex cogs and wheels of international aid, academic priorities and on-the-ground control which Alan has had to navigate so adeptly.
Professor J. Russell Stothard, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Purchase the book online from CABI, or, alternatively, from Amazon through Amazon Smile and make a donation to RSTMH at the same time.