Nosocomial-infections Books

When my aunt was put in the hospital none of my family knew what to do for her, this book helped us through the whole thing. Even i understood it. We tried other books but they all made it so we had know idea what they were talking about it. (...)

I bought this book when my father was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. It proved an invaluable tool in helping me undestand the maze of the in-hospital stay and, as a result, I was able to advocate much more effectively for my father, ensuring a safer, shorter hospital stay. It's packed full of concrete advice and written in an easy to understand conversational tone. I found the chapter on pain management to be especially helpful. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone anticipating a hospital stay or to the loved one of a patient already in the hospital.

As a clinician involved in patient care and discharge planning, I see every day the fear and upset people experience when they enter the hospital setting. They are strangers in a strange land, unfamiliar with "medicalese" jargon, institutional routine, policies and procedures, insurance issues and basic knowledge of the human body's complexity. Their bodies are failing, and, for the most part, their lives rest in the hands of strangers. In short they are terrified.

Joseph Sacco's Hospital Handbook goes a long way in demystifying the experience, and explaining to the lay person how to make sense of and negotiate the medical system. It is also an essential resource for understanding the most common diseases, ailments and conditions from which the hospitalized patient suffers, and their treatments.

Everyone knows that it is always best to be an educated consumer, regardless of the product. Health care is a universal product, and to remain ignorant on the subject could literally cost you your life. I keep Joseph Sacco's Hospital Handbook in both my personal and professional libraries. I refer patients to it constantly, and I have given away several copies as gifts to my most cherished friends.

In addition to patients or potential patients, I would recommend this book to hospital social workers, who are in the bizarre and uncomfortable position of being both the patient's advocate and the hospital's discharge planner. The information in the Hospital Handbook is invaluable to that often under-resourced group, who have to assist the hospitalized patient in making profound decisions about life during and after the hospital stay.
No hospital social worker should be without it.

This text has all of the answers to the frequent infection control related questions that arise in my home health company.

This is the first book written to help Home Care Agencies in designing their infection control programs. The book is well written and very specific for the home care setting.

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Most of the edited, multiauthor texts available in the medical marketplace avoid repetitive coverage of specific topics by design, if not always in practice. For instance, a typical book on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) would include one chapter on epidemiology, one on diagnosis, one on treatment, and so on. The series Perspectives on Critical Care Infectious Diseases, of which the present volume represents the fourth contribution, is quite different in that any given subject is discussed by more than one author or group of authors. As stated in the preface by the series editor, Jordi Rello, MD, this was a calculated plan meant to present"...the different management perspectives for these controversial and evolving topics." Dr. Rello goes on t specify that two guest editors are chosen for each volume, one from Europe and one from North America, thus further guaranteeing a more international perspective. After reading Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia, it is clear that such an approach has many advantages for the sophisticated reader but presents a significant challenge to the novice.
The book begins with two discussions of diagnostic strategies for VAP, as presented by Jean-Yves Fagon and Jean Chastre (presumably, the European experience) and Michael S. Niederman (presumably, the North American counterpart). The editors clearly chose their authors wisely, since one could hardly imagine two more opposite viewpoints. the first advocates invasive, quantitative culture techniques while the latter maintains that a "clinical and empiric approach" makes better sense. Both chapters marshal considerable supporting evidence from the literature, but neither can cite definitive randomized controlled trials providing unequivocal evidence of the superiority of either approach. The reader is still left with the essential controversy unresolved. While the empiric view may be easier and more convenient, a diagnosis that relies on "a new or progressive infiltrate with at least 2 of the following 3 criteria: fever, purulent sputum, or leukocytosis" can hardly be specific when other common intensive care syndromes can and often do, duplicate these findings. On the other hand, quantitative culture techniques may lack sensitivity, particularly in the case of early infection and may be prone to false-negative results, especially when performed after antibiotic treatment already has been started.
The remainder of the book seems far less controversial. The prevention of VAP is covered by two different authors, the pathogenesis of VAP (including the putative roles of the oropharynx and digestive tract) is covered in one chapter, and the treatment of VAP in Europe and North America is discussed by representatives from those respective medical communities. The text concludes with two views on the emergence and control of resistant organisms, and with a brief chapter further discussing some of the controversies existing in the VAP literature (as exemplified in the previous chapers). This last chapter provides a degree of summation and resolution for the opposing opinions presented earlier in the book, but it could have been more comprehensive in that regard. Also, this particular chapter contained numerous grammatical and typographic errors that interfered with readability. There is much repetition present throughout the text, mainly among the chapters on treatment and antibiotic resistance, but this is certainly unavoidable given the central premise of a book that seeks to present differing opinions on identical topics.
Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia serves the needs of a more restricted audience compared to other texts. Since it presents varyng points of view on many topices, it is not particularly suitable for medical students, residents, or fellows who are new to critical care medicine and who will have difficulty coming away with a unified "game plan" for VAP management. Rather, this book is a usefull tool for the experienced critical care, pulmonary, or infectious disease clinician or researcher, who can interpret the material presented in light of his/her own experience and knowledge, and perhaps alter an already mature practice style accordingly.
Lee K. Brown, MD, FCCP, Albuquerque NM, bookshelf

A rollicking good yarn: Fast-paced and tenacious, it'll hold you to your seat, work you up a good sweat, and never fail to dissapoint. Had me jumpping at shadows at some points, and crying myself to sweet sleep at others. In short, a must-read!

Excellent, informative, packed with real usable information.

If you want a book that tells you everything from what T cell is to the incubation period for measles, this book is it.

I learned so much information from this book that I though I "knew" except that when I started reading, I realized I didn't really know. I have always used the words "infectious disease" interchangeably with "communicable disease" and I don't see how I could have gotten this far in my career without knowing something as simple as how to differentiate the two!

Honestly, I would probably buy the whole book just for the chapter on immunity. It was the easiest explanation I've ever seen. Was I supposed to have learned this in school? I sure didn't! I'm not dumb, I'm just not smart enough to get all of the complicated non-clinical mumbo-jumbo. This book made it entirely readable and comprehensible.

I bought this book because I felt I had to. I teach a breastfeeding and lactation course, and I was struggling with simple issues like routes of transmission, and the effectiveness of simple actions to protect the newborn from the mother's disease. I ended up being really intrigued by the material presented, including special features, such as the "Alerts" and the "Case Studies" and the "Newsmakers." Trust me, this author has a great way of making the dull and complicated seem interesting and easy to understand.

This is considered the best foreign language reference for infection control in Brazil and has been used by many generation of infection controllers during and after their fellowship on Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP/São Paulo/Brazil.

I WOUD TO KNOW THE TREATEMENT AND ANALITYCS METHODS OF THE MARSA INFECTION IN INTENSIVE CARE UNITS

Fisher's 1994 warning will throw a scare into the stoutest heart. Although the problem of antibiotic resistance has been known since the earliest fanfare surrounding penicillin, only in recent years, with media attention, is the public catching a glimmer of the problem's magnitude.

Fisher's simple, well-organized explanations document the rise of resistant bacterial strains - many of them untreatable and often fatal, including strains of pneumonia and tuberculosis.

Given appropriately for, say, TB infection, antibiotics kill off marauding bacteria, allowing the body's defenses and bacterial equilibrium to return to normal. Given inappropriately for, as often happens, a viral disease such as a cold, the antibiotic destroys susceptible bacteria, leaving the field to resistant bacteria, which gorge on nutrients, thrive and reproduce. Or, given over too short a period, the antibiotic allows resistant bacteria to thrive and pass on their resistance to other infection causing bacteria, such as TB.

A particularly interesting and chilling chapter explores the possibility that antibiotic resistence is a co-factor in AIDS. Fisher claims that the HIV virus alone, which existed relatively harmlessly in Africa for decades, is insufficient to cause AIDS. He posits that resistent bacteria strains join forces with HIV to undermine the immune system and cause AIDS. To bolster his argument he offers supporting quotes from such luminaries as Luc Montagnier, the French discoverer of HIV and documents practices of indiscriminate antibiotic use among gay men and Africans.

Strongly persuasive, concluding with suggestions for reversing the trend, this is a valuable, easily accesssible, and still timely work.