John S. Marr

His professional life has concerned outbreaks of infectious disease and thus his subsequent writing career has focused on that topic, particularly historical epidemics.

In 1966, he worked up-country in Liberia (in the same area as the 2014 Ebola outbreak) at Phebe Hospital, treating malaria, schistosomiasis, intestinal worms and leprosy.

[citation needed] Written with Gwyneth Cravens and published in 1978, The Black Death was later filmed by CBS as a movie of the week under the title Quiet Killer.

[1] His articles on historical epidemics have been made into documentary films by National Geographic, Warner Brothers Video, Discovery, and the Travel Channel.

In the sequel, the crazed scientist from The Eleventh Plague reappears and plots against delusional adversaries who he believes are reincarnated Wizard of Oz characters.

Each enemy is stalked and killed by parasites designed for specific tasks to fulfill each character's weaknesses (lack of a heart, brain, and so on).

Set in the early 1950s, the books involve boys investigating a series of mysteries, such as the disappearance of a former OSS agent, an ancient Native American curse, and a character linked to Unit 731.

[6] Launched in July 2018, on a podcast series on JPHMPDirect, the online site for the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice, Marr relates stories about historical epidemiological investigations, such as "Mystery in the Pines," which recounts a typhoid epidemic in the Catskill Mountains.

Based on a comprehensive study of newly found eyewitness accounts and other historical and scientific evidence, they concluded that the cause was an arenaviral disease that arose in part as a result of changes in post-contact agrarian practices.

[15] His analysis of an epidemic of smallpox that struck an invading army that besieged Mecca suggested that the outbreak saved the pre-Islamic peoples, including a newborn Mohammed.