‘Pandemic,’ by Sonia Shah

Over Christmas, headlines across Britain screamed that Victorian-era diseases had returned. The past five years had apparently witnessed a 136 percent increase in scarlet fever cases, a remarkable 300 percent rise in the confirmed cases of cholera along with reported occurrences of other once-vanquished diseases like tuberculosis, measles and whooping cough.

The 300 percent jump in cholera cases is especially troubling — that deadly microbe devastated England nearly as much as the plague, claiming thousands of lives, especially in London. And the disease happens to be making its mark all over the world today, from ISIS-controlled territories in Syria and Iraq to Cuban prisons.