TY - JOUR T1 - The End is Extremely Nigh JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 643 LP - 643 DO - 10.3399/bjgp14X682981 VL - 64 IS - 629 AU - Euan Lawson Y1 - 2014/12/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/64/629/643.1.abstract N2 - Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic David Quammen Vintage, 2013, PB, 592pp, £10.99, 978-0099522850 Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare Peter C Gøtzsche Radcliffe Publishing Ltd, 2013, PB, 328pp, £24.99, 978-1846198847The future for humanity looks decidedly bleak in these two books. Take your pick: a pandemic or two looming on the horizon and a pharmaceutical industry beyond redemption.David Quammen is an accomplished storyteller and his book weaves a comprehensive tale of zoonoses and ‘spillover’: when those infections lurch across species into homo sapiens. Infections, such as the one due to the Hendra virus, may, at first, seem distant and exotic diseases far removed from the purview of general practice, but this view can … ER -