RNA virus and a parasite, such as Plas- venomous reptiles, arthropods, marine standard format and are divided

ard format and are divided into an

modium falciparum. animals, and various clinical conditions introduction, a description of the agent,
The subject of the evolution of micro- that are best suited to color reproduction. a discussion of related epidemiology, a
bial pathogens deserves a wider audience A CD-ROM is included with the book description of the disease, and discus-
than evolutionary biologists, microbiolo- that contains all of the text and figures sions of pathogenesis and immunity, di-
gists, and infectious diseases specialists. in a portable document file (pdf) format agnosis, treatment and prognosis, and
This book should be required reading for that is accessible via a searchable browser prevention and control. Many of the
university students of infectious diseases interface in both PC and Mac formats. chapters contain illustrations of trans-
and clinical microbiology, who are in- The editors have successfully achieved a mission cycles that use a standardized
creasingly trained in molecular biology but consistently high quality throughout this format (i.e., entry of agents to humans
who may have a scarce understanding of multiple-author text, which has a list of at the 9 o’clock position and exit at the
the evolution of pathogens. contributors that reads like a who’s who 3 o’clock position), making the text-

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of the tropical medicine world. based explanations more accessible to the
Jordi Vila
Section I, “Principles and General Con- reader. Many chapters in this section deal
Department of Clinical Microbiology, Hospital Clinic,
siderations,” in any other setting would, with infections that exist in both tropical
School of Medicine, University of Barcelona,
Barcelona, Spain in its own right, comprise an entire text- and nontropical areas; however, they
book on introductory and current con- have been written and structured such
cepts in tropical medicine. It provides a that they are relevant to readers in both
Tropical Infectious Diseases: solid introduction to the social and bio- areas. It is noteworthy that rickettsial dis-
logical issues related to tropical diseases,
Principles, Pathogens, and opening the section to any page has
eases are often lumped into a single chap-
ter in medical textbooks, but in this vol-
and Practice the reader immediately engrossed in the
ume, rickettsial and ehrlichial infections
2nd Edition, Volumes 1 and 2 subject being discussed. The section is
are divided into 5 comprehensive chap-
Edited by Richard L. Guerrant, composed of 15 chapters that cover di-
ters (spotted fevers, typhus, scrub typhus,
David H. Walker, and Peter F. Weller verse introductory topics in tropical med-
anaplasma and/or ehrlichia, and Q fever)
icine, such as social and cultural factors,
Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone (Elsevier), correctly signifying (in my view) their
2005 epidemiology and biostatistics, nutrition,
importance in tropical medicine. The vi-
1936 pp. $329.00 (cloth). poisons, toxins, vectors, malignancy, and
ral subsection covers the major tropical
immunology. There are also 2 extremely
viral illnesses and, for this edition, con-
The current edition of Tropical Infectious comprehensive chapters that describe cur-
tains a new chapter on Nipah and Hen-
Diseases: Principles, Pathogens, and Practice rent recommendations for the chemo-
dra virus infections. Given the interest in
is the second edition of this outstanding therapy of infectious agents, which are
possible pandemic influenza and severe
textbook, which was originally published separated into parasitic diseases (chapter
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the
in 1999 and has become one of the es- 13) and bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases
chapter on viral infections of the respi-
sential resources for this extensive area of (chapter 14). The final chapter of section
I is a new addition to this volume that ratory tract is topical and provides a
medicine. The textbook is in 2 volumes,
describes surveillance for emerging infec- comprehensive overview of acute respi-
comprising 3 sections: “Principles and
tious diseases and bioterrorism threats. ratory infections in the tropics, as well as
General Considerations,” “Pathogens,”
Many of the chapters in this section make covering the specifics of infection due to
and “Practice: Approach to the Patient in
very good use of tables to convey com- influenza virus, respiratory syncytial vi-
the Tropics.” Volume 1 comprises section
parative aspects of their subject matter, in rus, human parainfluenza virus, rhino-
I and a large component of section II
(covering bacterial and viral infections). the tradition of most successful reference virus, adenoviruses, coronaviruses (both
Volume 2 covers fungal and parasitic in- textbooks. SARS-related viruses and non-SARS–
fections. This review covers only volume Section II, ”Pathogens,” contains chap- related viruses), and metapneumovi-
1. The 2 volumes are well laid out, with ters on bacterial and mycobacterial (chap- ruses. This chapter is complimented by
a generous number of illustrations and ters 16–43), spirochetal (chapters 44–46), a table that compares each of the viruses
tables to complement the text. The ma- chlamydial (chapters 47–49), rickettsial and associated clinical syndromes, diag-
jority of illustrations are in black and and ehrlichial (chapters 50–54), viral noses, therapies, and vaccines. Compre-
white, probably for reasons of cost, al- (chapters 55–75), and human retroviral hensive chapters detailing numerous ar-
though there are 8 pages of color plates infections in the tropics (chapter 76). thropod-borne virus infections give this
at the start of the volume that display These chapters are logically laid out in a volume true relevance in the tropics. Vol-

314 • CID 2007:44 (15 January) • BOOK REVIEWS

ume 2 completes the pathogens section,
covering fungal and parasitic infections.
This book, with its excellent multidis-
ciplinary and interdisciplinary style, will
appeal to students at both the undergrad-
uate and postgraduate levels and to cli-
nicians and/or researchers at any stage of
their career, and it is certain to become a
“must have” on the bookshelf.

Acknowledgments
Potential conflicts of interest. S.D.B.: no
conflicts.

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Stuart D. Blacksell
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University,
Bangkok, Thailand

BOOK REVIEWS • CID 2007:44 (15 January) • 315