In this valuable memoir, frontline public health heroine Mary Guinan shares poignant and often hilarious tales, many privy to her only as a woman with an open mind and heart. Informative, insightful, and compassionate, the stories from this inquisitive, gloriously successful disease cowgirl are a delight to read. -- Joel G. Breman, MD, DTPH, FIDSA, FASTMH Adventures of a Female Medical Detective is a must read. Bold, informative, and heartfelt, it recounts important events from the career of Mary Guinan and the mission of the CDC. Her adventurous works demonstrate curiosity and compassion, and her courageous dedication to scientific integrity and action reflects the best in public health. -- James W. Curran, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University If you want to hear what a real-life public health hero is truly like, pick up the story of Dr. Mary Guinan, who has simultaneously overcome gender-based discrimination and literally improved the health of millions. -- David Holtgrave, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Imagine Sherlock Holmes tracking diseases instead of criminals. Dr. Mary Guinan's sharp and humorous account of the frontlines of many of the key public health mysteries of the last few decades is that and more as she confronts the scientific, moral, and political challenges of keeping the nation healthy. -- Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, School of Public Health and Hunter College, City University of New York From the back of an elephant tracking smallpox to the bedside of a dying patient tracking AIDS, Mary Guinan shows the detective work required to understand and control infectious diseases around the world. Sometimes funny, often scary, these stories inform, educate, and leave us appreciative of the people on the front lines protecting the public's health. -- Don Francis

In 1974, a young doctor arrived at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with one goal in mind: to help eradicate smallpox. The only woman physician in her class in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a two-year epidemiology training program, Mary Guinan soon was selected to join India's Smallpox Eradication Program, which searched out and isolated patients with the disease. By May of 1975, the World Health Organization declared Uttar Pradash smallpox-free. During her barrier-crossing career, Dr. Guinan met arms-seeking Afghan insurgents in Pakistan and got caught in the cross fire between religious groups in Lebanon. She treated some of the first AIDS patients and served as an expert witness in defense of a pharmacist who was denied employment for having HIV-leading to a landmark decision that still protects HIV patients from workplace discrimination. Randy Shilts's best-selling book on the epidemic, And the Band Played On, features her AIDS work. In Adventures of a Female Medical Detective, Guinan weaves together twelve vivid stories of her life in medicine, describing her individual experiences in controlling outbreaks, researching new diseases, and caring for patients with untreatable infections. She offers readers a feisty, engaging, and uniquely female perspective from a time when very few women worked in the field. Occasionally heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, Guinan's account of her pathbreaking career will inspire public health students and future medical detectives-and give all readers insight into that part of the government exclusively devoted to protecting their health.