Tropical-Medicine Books

I used this book on a medical humanitarian mission to Africa because I didn't want to lug my huge textbooks around. It was the perfect size to fit in my carry on and fanny pack. The material was clear, concise, and up to date. I used it every day of my trip, and would recommend it to physicians or other health care professionals.

The Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine is a great book, as the other reviewers have stated. There is one reason why it stands out, and that is its physical construction. The paper is very thin (like a bible), and the writing is microscopic (good for traveling). The cover is tough plastic, and it is crammed with great reference material. If you've made it to this review, you should buy this book even if you aren't a doctor. If you're going to a developing country (where English is spoken) it would make a wonderful gift for the local doctor or nurse (many of whom are forced to consult 20 year old smeared photocopies of photocopies of out of date textbooks for their clinical information).

I stay part time in rural India and this book is awesome. It addresses issues that I had begun to believe I would never find solid information about. It also gives treatment options that keep Third World Medicine in mind. Very practical.

I recently spent some time in a small, rural clinic in sub-saharan Africa, and this book was by far the most useful tool I had. This is not at all a book on disease theory or etiology - it is purely practical. Concisely, what to suspect, how to diagnosis, and how to treat (e.g., step-by-step instructions on how to Giemsa stain a blood smear). One feature I especially appreciated was how this book doesn't make any assumptions about what diagnostic tools you have available; it explains how to best make decisions both with and without radiology, bacterial cultures, etc. The size of this book of course precludes certain information, the incorporation and discussion of WHO treatment guidelines is incredibly valuable.

I had this book among several others while working in rural Uganda. I quickly forgot the other texts and had this stuffed in my back pocket on the wards and going for housecalls. I'm an internist, so when a measles outbreak started I really appreciated the great section on managing this disease. This text contains the essentials for all aspects of medicine in tropical, resource-poor settings as well as great nutritional information. I will bring this book whenever when workng abroad.

Two of the biggest names in Mexican Dermatology and international skin tropical disease research/patient management have combined to edit a very useful, practical book about tropical dermatology. The text includes chapters from the editors and 28 expert contributors (mainly from Mexico) covering all dermatoses (mostly infectious diseases) common to the tropics. Each chapter is concise and the writing style is uniform - all diseases are subdivided into the same subsections - brief historical introduction, geograpical distribution, etiology, clinical picture, and treatment. The text is easy to read, well indexed and adequately illustrated, although all figures (nearly 200 in all) are in black and white in order to keep production costs low. The book is a compact size with a ring-binder spine in keeping with other volumes in the Landes Bioscience Vademecum series. It is an ideal book for a big coat pocket or the clinic desk drawer. It is the sort of book that is extremely useful if one happens to be puzzling over a patient from the tropics and thinking "I wonder if it could be that...?" Chances are that the memory can be focused very quickly with a quick dip into this book.

Aside from dermatologists, this book will certainly be of interest to mycologists and indeed any physician who either practices in tropical countries or sees patients that travel to the tropics. For trainees in dermatology this book provides essential core knowledge (for example, all you need to know about rhinosporidosis in 500 words and 3 illustrations - remember this next time you examine a patient with an odd intranasal papule!) and would prove to be a good investment. Drs. Arenas and Estrada are to be congratulated on producing an important and readable book. It has been well received in Mexico and it deserves to be an international success. The reviewer's copy of this book has been donated to the Calnan library at St. John's Institute of Dermatology. I encourage you to have a look at it, and then buy your own copy.

This manual is directed at a broad audience: medical students, general practicioners, health professionals, and humanitarian organizations, as well as well informed and careful travellers. It is of interest to anyone living or working in a tropical area. Presented in an easy to read format, the book has 358 pages and 206 figures with black and white illustrations. The text is concise, precise and written in english for broad audience appeal.

Three quarters of the world population live in tropical or subtropical regions which are often characterized by extreme poverty and severe living conditions. It is here that the grave tropical diseases are concentrated, constituting tropical pathology. Roberto Arenas and Roberto Estrada are dermatologists practicing in Mexico, a country where they are able to observe the full spectrum of tropical pathology, rendering them highly qualified to direct the publication of this manual of tropical dermatology.

The editors have compiled this brief, but complete, manual with the input of experts in the field of tropical dermatological diseases. 70 dermatoses, are presented in order of importance. The mycoses (22 of the 70) are presented first: superficial mycosis, psuedomycosis, subcutaneous mycosis and mycosis by opportunists. The other chapters describe other tropical dermatoses, mycobacteriosis, pyodermas, treponematosis and genital ulcers, parasitic dermatosis, virosis, etc. For each of the 70 diseases detailed, the co-authors describe the geographic location, epidemiology, etiology, clinical picture, laboratory characteristics and treatment. Each chapter ends with selected bibliographic references.

In short, this manual is practical and highly recommended. It is simple but complete, making it perfect for the reader who would like to expand his information base about tropical dermatology. The only regret is that the excellent photographs are not available in color which would add value to this handbook.

With his previous work included in publications such as The Atlas of Dermatology and Medical Mycology, Dr Roberto ArenasÕ participation in any publication pertaining to tropical dermatology along with Dr. EstradaÕs experience in community medicine are automatic guarantees of the bookÕs quality. This book is clearly written and easily understood. It covers a broad range of tropical pathology including general mycosis, parasitic illnesses, malnutrition induced skin disorders, tropical ulcers and contact dermatoses from marine animals and arthropods. Tropical Dermatology should be included in libraries of Dermatologists, Mycologists, Pediatricians, Internists, and General Practitioners. While its target audience consists primarily of physicians and health professional in tropical and sub-tropical areas, the book also serves as a beneficial resource for physicians unfamiliar with tropical medicine as well as in areas where these illnesses do not prevail.

This is an interesting and complete book. Due to its diagnostic and therapeutic orientation, it is of very practical use. The black and white photographs are of good quality and the references are well selected and up to date.

This handbook will be useful for physicians in training as well as physicians of non-tropical countries.

Drs. ArenasÕ and EstradaÕs professional acumen is well known throughout Mexico as well as the UK, France, Italy, Thailand, Peru and Brazil.

This editorial novelty is a handbook for students and physicians, as it is a compendium of the most frequently encountered and important tropical dermatoses by naming their geographic distribution, etiology, clinical characteristics, and treatments. Superficial mycosis, pseudomycosis, subcutaneous mycosis, systemic mycosis, opportunistic mycosis, mycobacterial infections, pyodermas, treponematosis, genital and tropical ulcers, parasitic, viral and contact dermatosis, insect bites, dyschromias and many others are included.

The need for a tropical dermatology handbook has been accelerated by the current phenomenon of rapid globalization and the fact that 75% of the world population lives in the tropical and subtropical regions. Most of these dermatoses affect not only these regions and lower socioeconomic groups but also the immunocompromised hosts, so frequently seen in our daily practice. Patients undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplants, immunossuppresion treatments and those suffering from AIDS are becoming a daily challenge in our practice, as they are occasionally compromised by these tropical dermatoses, most of them well known in the tropical region of Mexico.

Through the collaboration of 28 authors, the main concepts of these dermatoses are clearly elucidated. There are 17 chapters, 358 pages, 8 tables and an outstanding iconographic collection of 206 black and white clinical, microscopic illustrations.

There is no doubt that "Tropical Dermatology" reviews the basic tenets of public health in the field of tropical dermatology. The editors, Roberto Arenas and Roberto Estrada, illuminate this with their knowledge, abilities and experience as teachers, writers and editors. They succeed in selecting a group of well known authors who are experts in their fields, and succeed in obtaining an interesting handbook that is versatile, precise, concise and easy to read and comprehend. As it is written in English, it goes beyond the medical language of international barriers.

This "Tropical Dermatology" handbook should be on the bookshelves of all of us interested in the fields of dermatology, infectious disease or public health.

This book is a must-have for the ID groupie as well as expert, or anyone with a morbid fascination for bioterrorism. A notation with each monograph indicates whether the agent is a potential bioweapon and includes BSL classification.. Notes at the beginning of each monograph explain the origin of viral names (O'nyong nyong fever means "weakening of the joints in the Acholi dialect of Uganda, Nipah virus is named after Baru Sungai Nipa village in Malaysia, etc). World travelers, especially those going "off the beaten track," will find it or the accompanying CD, handy to carry along, a great way to impress or scare the daylights out of fellow travelers. Though intended for physicians, others will find it concisely written and easy to follow, with a little help a medical dictionary at times. Finding this info from another source, even on the web, might be difficult.

I was first introduced to the writing of Stephen Berger through his work with ProMed, the infectious disease e-mail newsletter, and he and the other two editors are certainly among the best qualified to write this guide.

For the 55 diseases that were chosen, and well presented in an average 4-page/disease format, this non-epidemiologist found just about everything he could wish for: clear understandable prose, complete up-to-date notes with web-links,means of transmission, and so-far effective diagnostic tests, vaccines, and treatments (and their side effects).

For anyone slightly medically inclined with an interest in communicable/viral disease who wants to be knowledgeable about what's "out there", this is a first rate contribution and should not be missed.

This compact paperback is smaller (4x6x1/2") than The Control of Communicable Diseases Manual (CCDM). But Exotic Viral Diseases begins where the latter leaves off. Arranged in alphabetical order, fifty-five individual viral diseases are each discussed over an average of four pages using a similar format to the CCDM. But there is much more: Telegraphic "clinical hints", geographical distributions and typical therapy are listed for each disease. An occasional table leavens the text, and a complete list of nearly 150 really obscure viral agents is included at the end. Four tables summarize all the diseases by arthropod vector and non-arthropod modes of transmission, usual and unusual animal reservoirs, and major syndrome complexes. Three appendices discuss sample collection/shipping, diagnostic tests, and drugs/vaccines/adverse effects. An introduction explaining the rationale and need for the book and an index sandwich a tremendous amount of information into 252 pages. Up to date references and web addresses for additional reading end the discussion of the fifty-five diseases.
An exciting bonus is a three inch CD that contains the book's complete text and illustrations in searchable PDF files. (Publisher, BC Decker, Inc, [Hamilton, Ontario] refers to this format as BcD [Book cum Disc]). The book and text are sold as a package, which might explain the price (which is the same as the CCDM).
The three editors should be well known the Infectious Disease Community. Stephen A. Berger is also a familiar name to those have visited ProMed, or used GIDEON. He is a regular contributor to ProMED and one of its annual early award winners. He invented the idea of GIDEON a decade ago, and continues to update this valuable source of infectious disease epidemiology. Charles H. Calisher is an internationally known arbovirologist, and master charientist. Jay S. Keystone is a noted Canadian infectious disease expert.
Limitations? There are no ICD-9 or 10 codings for the diseases, but this minor, unless you're a coder. Monkeypox is discussed, but the coronavirus implicated in SARS is not. Both have become less than exotic, and may not need to be listed here. Zoonotic viral diseases are largely omitted except those that have been transmitted to humans. If and when they are, they'll be in the next edition of this book. My favorite orphan zoonosis, Bornavirus, was also neglected.
Exotic Viral Diseases belongs next to the CCDM. Unlike the new edition of the Redbook that cannot be easily carried in one's pocket, Exotic Viral Diseases fits nicely into a pocket and supplements the CCDM in a number of settings. It's worth the price!

This compact paperback is smaller (4x6x1/2") than The Control of Communicable Diseases Manual (CCDM). But Exotic Viral Diseases begins where the latter leaves off. Arranged in alphabetical order, fifty-five individual viral diseases are each discussed over an average of four pages using a similar format to the CCDM. But there is much more: Telegraphic "clinical hints", geographical distributions and typical therapy are listed for each disease. An occasional table leavens the text, and a complete list of nearly 150 really obscure viral agents is included at the end. Four tables summarize all the diseases by arthropod vector and non-arthropod modes of transmission, usual and unusual animal reservoirs, and major syndrome complexes. Three appendices discuss sample collection/shipping, diagnostic tests, and drugs/vaccines/adverse effects. An introduction explaining the rationale and need for the book and an index sandwich a tremendous amount of information into 252 pages. Up to date references and web addresses for additional reading end the discussion of the fifty-five diseases.
An exciting bonus is a three inch CD that contains the book's complete text and illustrations in searchable PDF files. [...]The book and text are sold as a package, which might explain the price (which is the same as the CCDM).
The three editors should be well known the Infectious Disease Community. Stephen A. Berger is also a familiar name to those have visited ProMed, or used GIDEON. He is a regular contributor to ProMED and one of its annual early award winners. He invented the idea of GIDEON a decade ago, and continues to update this valuable source of infectious disease epidemiology. Charles H. Calisher is an internationally known arbovirologist, and master charientist. Jay S. Keystone is a noted Canadian infectious disease expert.
Limitations? There are no ICD-9 or 10 codings for the diseases, but this minor, unless you're a coder. Monkeypox is discussed, but the coronavirus implicated in SARS is not. Both have become less than exotic, and may not need to be listed here. Zoonotic viral diseases are largely omitted except those that have been transmitted to humans. If and when they are, they'll be in the next edition of this book. My favorite orphan zoonosis, Bornavirus, was also neglected.
Exotic Viral Diseases belongs next to the CCDM. Unlike the new edition of the Redbook that cannot be easily carried in one's pocket, Exotic Viral Diseases fits nicely into a pocket and supplements the CCDM in a number of settings. It's worth the price!

Great stand alone or companion book to the larger text. Lots of great info. Will travel with it always. Read it on the airplane...the person next to you will keep peeking at it.

Great resource. Up-to-date with input from the most well-known names in wilderness medicine. Small enough to carry in a backpack, but packed with helpful info. Includes everything from packing/planning to critical care in the wilderness. Best resource I've ever seen for this material.

If you consider Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine text to be "The Bible of Outdoor Medicine," then this will be a welcomed addition to your reference library. The fieldguide takes many of the most important topics from the original text(such as high altitude emergencies, envenomations, and trauma management) and paraphrases them just enough to be of benefit to both the weekend outdoor warrior and the expedition medic. I particularly was interested in the various ways to utilize common outdoor gear and improvise traction devices for orthopedic injuries. This book is also great in that it is small enough to fit comfortably in your backpack or glove compartment, readily accessable when needed. I highly recommend adding this book to your home or office library.

This is an excellent condensed version of the full text. It is the only medical field guide I have found that is written for a medical doctor instead of an EMT or paramedic in an austere environment. I am a physician in a military special operations unit and carry it on all deployments, whether in the U.S. or other countries. It is the perfect size to carry with my field gear and trauma pack, and is quick, easy to use, and reccommends very up to date and rapid treatment plans. A must have for all medical professionals practicing in the pre-hospital environment! For medical professionals going to remote locations that are limited by what they can carry on their back, very few texts/guides can be brought along. The solution to this limitation is simple; pack your Sanford, your Pharmacoepia, and THIS BOOK. It is the best text for it's size and weight available.

This is an excellent book, well written by expert in their field, most of them are my mentor at the John's Jopkins Univ.

I'm a doctor, a specialist of naval and tropical medicine. "Hunter's Tropical Medicine" is the most important publication which I need and use for my job.

this book is well written by experts in their field, excellent book , used it as your bible. Most of the author are my former mentor at the John's Hopkins Univ.

This book is essential to practice developing world medicine. I'd be lost without it.

I was looking for a good read on tropical medicine but also lightweight and easy to pack and carry around. There really were not much options out there that I could find. This one and the oxford handbook on tropical medicine fit what I was looking for. Both were good, but the Lecture Notes I found slightly more useful, easier to find information and a bit more clinical detail. Very wide range of topics listed both by presenting syndrome and by each etiology separately.

This book is very useful in my practice as a general practitioner and Travel Medicine Specialist. It gives brief but concise up to date information about Tropical Diseases. I still use other refernces in addition for up to date information about diagnosis and treatment, but find this book as a good quick 'first stop'. The photographs, though interesting, are few and not particularly relevant for my practice in New Zealand.It is the course textbook for the Travel Medicine paper through Otago University.Good value for money.

This small-to-medium sized text is perfect for folks who need a quick and pertinent Tropical Medicine reference. I have found that it nicely complements the Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine (OHTM). OHTM is smaller, yet touches on a broader array of disease. Lecture Notes on Tropical Medicine gives more depth, with emphasis on diseases unique to the tropics. Both are excellent and highly recommended.

I have used every edition of this book since the first one came out as a single author edition by Dr Dion Bell. The book has only improved as the years went on. This book is not encyclopedic but has the information most needed when dealing with diseases of the tropics and developing world. Even if you have a larger more encyclopedic text you should have this one. This book is ideal for the physician or other practitioner going to the tropics for the first time and who may not have the time for more exhaustive study. Of all the medical texts I have used over the year this is one of the best!

this book is a must have, for a person who's traveling in a 3rd world country and even more so, if you are not a doctor or nurse.

its easy to read, small and compact enough to bring along and has tons of great info.

HIGHLY RECOMMEDED!

I bought a book back in 1992. Used it for travels to Asia and Afrika. Handy size can always fit your backpack, no matter how light you must pack. I used it for rough trips, as well as for trips around Europe with kids. The book covers all essential aspects that you will need for your travel: (i) which vaccinations to take before you go and what to pack, (ii) what precautions to take to stay fit and healthy, (iii) what to do in case you get sick and (iv) what is the bottom line when you really need to stop being your own doctor and need to find a physician. The book is well structured and you find in a second the topic you are looking for. I strongly recomend the book to travelers who are serious about staying healthy.

I found this book to be very informative. It showed the vaccines that you should get but not only that. It told about the bugs and "creepy crawlies" that you should stay away from in your particular country you are going to. It told of the plants that are poisonous and to stay away from there water unless you have a purifier. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who is goind to a third world country!

I have travelled and lived all over the world and I always have this book with me. Not only does it cover how to protect yourself, but if you do get sick it helps you to get better. I love that it includes different drugs for you to take for different bugs, and it tells you the exact dosage. This comes in handy when you are living in the bush in Africa, no doctor for hundreds of miles, but a well stocked pharmacy near by. I HIGLY recomend this book or anyone planning to travel or live overseas.

Land of the midnight sun.

Reverries.. WBYEATS sailing to byzantium innisfree

The technical mind, AgFd ACS, FSEEE

Medical doctors... Captian Doctor a natural history of the dead

Woodger

Fleming?

debakey, barnard, cooley, howard, christian, denton

medical doctors

Enjoy reading literature written by medical doctors.

MD magazine had short stories also

beware the pogonip





Medical doctors are deft, adept intellectual academic readers thus, also literati.

Nielson's 4th, The Inextinguishable rowing scull to Jupiter and
Beyond.

513-242-2393

This book contains the memoirs Dr. Victor Heiser, international public health administrator for 30 years starting at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The book begins with a riveting account of how Heiser survived the Johnstown Flood by nimbly balancing on the walls of his barn as it swirled in the maelstrom after seeing his entire family swept under the waters in their home. Alone in the world following this disaster, Heiser decided to study medicine, but discovered upon graduation that he much preferred to prevent disease than cure it. He felt that he could do more for more people by fighting public health campaigns than by dealing with individual sick patients. He began his career as a military health inspector overseeing immigration halls at large ports, including Ellis Island. He later moved on to Europe, where he set up health inspection services so that would-be immigrants to the United States could be screened before setting sail from Europe. Following the Spanish American War, he was assigned as chief health officer of the new American colony in the Philippines. After serving almost ten years in the Philippines, he joined the international public health team of the Rockefeller Foundation, where he served as an itinerant medical expert and public health adviser for nearly twenty years.

During his tenure in the Philippines, Heiser worked hard to get cholera, typhoid, plague, smallpox, and leprosy under control. Politically, he was very much a man of his times, and his prose displays the typical racist attitudes of a senior colonial official. He could become very aggravated by what he considered the whimsical behavior of the Filipinos, and he often resorted to draconian measures to contain disease outbreaks. Nevertheless, his intentions were laudable if his methods were sometimes questionable.

Heiser's accounts of his time with the Rockefeller Foundation are fascinating. He explains how the Rockefeller Foundation selected hookworm elimination campaigns as their primary focus: Rockefeller wanted the team to work with a pathogen that was not only common, caused serious harm to society, but also could be seen with the naked eye. He felt that if people could actually see what was making them sick, even if they were illiterate, they would understand the cause and effect relationship between the pathogen and their illness, and would be willing to do their part in supporting the campaign. The hope was that the administration set up in a community for the hookworm elimination campaign would prove itself so useful that the community would want it to continue and expand its scope, leading to the establishment of a full public health service. Heiser relates how well this idea succeeded, not only in the American South, but throughout the world, from Thailand to Abyssinia.

Indeed, aside from the medical details, Heiser's descriptions of his travels are some of the most interesting parts of the book. He tells us of conditions on ships and trains, in cities and country sides around the world. In one of the more fascinating accounts of his travels, he describes the lush green highland paradise of Abyssinia, how in the 1930s he could see terraced orchards of apples and pears from his hotel room in Addis Ababa, and how beautiful the forests and cool clear streams were there. From modern accounts of the Ethiopian environment, it seems those fruit trees and forests are long gone, casualties of civil war, mismanagement, and over-population (perhaps a result of Heiser's work?). Heiser also notes how the Abyssinians, including their leader Haile Selassie considered themselves a separate race from the Black Africans, who they displayed racists attitudes towards, and how they were incensed when the US sent them Black ambassadors. If Heiser's contemporary account of Abyssian society is indeed accurate, it puts Rastafarians' idolization of Selassie in a new light, indeed.

This book has been one of my favorites for many years. I read it first in paperback, and after that fell apart I managed to find a used hardback copy. The book is the autobiography of Victor Heiser, M.D. The book starts with a bang with Heiser as a teenager surviving the Johnstown flood. (His parents were killed.) The rest of the book is mostly anecdotes taken from his medical career. Dr. Heiser is perhaps the ultimate example of the international public health doctor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He spent much of his career as the U.S.'s Director of Health in the Philippines. Much of the book is organized by disease: he discusses smallpox, plague, cholera, leprosy, hookworm, etc. Heiser's main point is that health comes mostly from vaccination, clean water, good food, sanitation, and isolation of people sick with contagious diseases, not from expensive medical care.
Nearly every page of the book has a great story; you get the impression that Heiser must have been a fantastic dinner guest. Heiser's stories of vaccinating the uncivilized tribesmen of the Philippines are medical adventure at its best.
Towards the end of his career Heiser became a representative of the Rockefeller Foundation and spent his time traveling the world selling public health to the masses. The book bogs down a bit here; sometimes you wish Heiser would stop bragging about the number of times he's visited each country and tell more stories.
For the modern reader, Heiser's book is still surprisingly relevant, though maybe not in ways he intended. Heiser and other public health doctors are perhaps the persons most responsible for today's overpopulation of the earth. The fact is that if you save a life, you must prevent a birth somewhere else, or risk overrunning your resources. Heiser had no concept of limits. In my opinion, today's doctors have for the most part still never understood this, with the result that they often cause more harm than good.
Another important point for modern readers is the concept of diminishing returns for medical care. Heiser's book shows this clearly. Heiser, who was starting with Philippine peasants that had never seen a doctor, could save thousands of lives with a few dollars' worth of vaccines. Today we may spend a million dollars on a single transplant patient or premature baby. Are we really getting our moneys' worth? I don't think so.
Overall, a very good book if you can find it.

This atlas is a book that every healthcare provider dealing with tropical disease/infectious disease should have in their library. It is very comprehensive in detail but is most useful in conjunction with a book detailing the specifics of these disease.

Highly recommended

This book is an excellent companion to the study of tropical medicine and clinical parasitology for the beginner as well as the experienced reader.The pictures, graphs and maps are very good and this edition has been updated and expanded significantly with new illustations, maps, updates of life cycles of parasites, relevant x-rays, clinical pictures and illustrations of parasites and hosts. A perfect companion to a textbook of tropical medicine. Highly recommended. The resolution of the pictures on the CD-ROM are, however, a bit too low to enjopy fully for my eyes. The book is recommended for the postgraduate courses in tropical medicine and medical parasitology at the University of Oslo. Oystein Strand MD PhD, Associate professor of ID,Akershus University Hospital,Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway

This book is a useful reference for researchers, especially for updated information presented in table form for Leishmania spp. (pp. 3 and 14-6), sand fly vectors (pp. 34-5) and regimens of chemotherapy (pp. 135-6). Authors were well-chosen to introduce the topics of their own research presented in 11 chapters (~15 pages each). Most chapters are, by necessity, focused largely on the authors' own work or views due apparently to page limitation. This is adequate and even desirable for frequently reviewed subjects, such as sand fly biology by Killick-Kendrick; or a relatively specific or new topic, which is naturally so or made so by the authors' skills, such as membrane transport by Landfear and Leishmania infection on macrophage function by Matlashewski. These chapters are thus probably most friendly to the general reader. The same can be said to a greater or lesser extent for chapters on macrophage receptors for Leishmania by Mosser and Brittingham, chemotherapy of leishmanasis by Zilberstein and Ephros, and Leishmania-sand fly interactions by Kamhawi. The space allocated is clearly insufficient to account for all necessary details, diversities and unknowns in the epidemiology of human and canine leishmaniasis, as presented by Dedet, Shaw and Campino as well as for the complexities and uncertainties in the immunobiology of leishmaniasis by Kaye, Farrell and Campos-Neto. These chapters will undoubtedly be appreciated by the specialists, but may not be by general readers who have little or no prior exposure to the caveat or nuance of Leishmania epidemiology and immunology. An exception to this may be the chapter by Campos-Neto on vaccines, since this is an area of great interest, and since some data from work in progress were presented. The book would be improved with the addition of another chapter or two on cell and molecular biology of Leishmania to discuss, for example, some exciting discoveries and development, e. g. unique cell organelles (e. g. tubular lysosomes, acidocalcisomes), glycobiology, gene expression, genome project, molecular genetics, kinetoplast RNA editing. Some of these topics are trypanosomatid-, but not necessarily Leishmania-specific. Still, our knowledge of how parasites and hosts work at cellular and molecular levels is crucial in our attempt to understand their interactions that makes leishmaniasis so unique in all aspects from epidemiology to immunobiology. There is high hope to render these biological phenotypes less descriptive and more clearly defined by genomic, proteomic, glyconomic, metabolomic and other bioinformatic approaches.

There are several non-scientific distractions. There appears to be no copy-editing work, resulting in too many incomplete literature citations (four in pp. 147-50), and many typographic errors in the text, including two in the Preface. The Index is too brief and chapters are illustrated with very few diagrams and no photographs. These deficiencies are possibly due to a desire for rapid publication to keep chapters current and/or to cost-cutting measures established by the publisher.

Nevertheless, many readers will find interesting thoughts and insights from their own perspectives in many chapters of this book, including this reviewer with decades of exposure to Leishmania and leishmaniasis. I find Shaw's historical view on this disease in the Amazon region interesting, as described in his chapter on South American leishmaniasis. His writing on the separation of subgenous Leihsmania and Viannia clarifies some confusion of our own experimental data. It is also interesting that PKDL is thought to result from the targeting of effector function against parasites in the skin of patients recovering from VL after chemotherapy, as stated by Kaye citing the work of Theander's group. These are just several examples of my own deficiencies rectified by reading this book. Other readers will find specific points of interest according to their own backgrounds and knowledge.

The editor and serial editors deserve our appreciation and congratulations for their successful endeavour by putting this volume together for publication. There has been no hard cover book devoted to Leishmania since the late 1980's. This book may well be the last one of this kind, since in this era of information highway, the next book on Leishmania and leishmaniasis is likely to be electronically digitized for sale in the website. I will make sure to keep my copy around and urge you all to rush order a copy before it is sold.
Kwang-Poo Chng, Kinetoplastid Biology and Disease 2003, 2:9

This volume provides an overdue, well-needed and succinct update on the clinical, epidemiological, ecological and basic science aspects (immunology, pathophysiology, drug resistance and metabolism) of leishmaniasis by experts in the field. Leishmaniasis is widely distributed throughout the world; the disease threatens 350 million people in 88 countries world-wide. However, not since the Chang and Bray and/or Killick-Kendrick and Peters volumes published approximately 25 years ago has there been a monograph published providing a current and complete overview of the field. This has been to the detriment of those who teach parasitology or to anyone entering this field. Comprehensive reviews suitable as readings for advanced undergraduate or graduate students are rare. Further, most reviews are highly focused and specialized to the exclusion of providing a general biological overview. In a quickly evolving field, such as leishmaniasis, this is understandable; however, it is to the credit of Dr. Farrell (who edited this volume) that this deficiency has been filled. Each chapter is succinct, yet covers an important aspect of the biology, ecology. epidemiology or clinical disease; references provided are particularly useful.

Leishmaniasis is a spectrum of diseases ranging from the cutaneous, to visceral; the diverse clinical forms of disease are caused by multiple species, with different reservoir hosts and insect vectors. Hence, there is considerable complexity in the biology to be understood, as indicated by the first four chapters by Drs. Dedet, Shaw, Killick-Kendrick and Campino. The first four chapters provide an overview of the epidemiology of this spectrum of diseases and include reviews of the ecology of New World leishmaniasis, biology of phlebotomine sand flies (insect vector), and epidemiology of visceral leishmaniasis. The next chapters focus on topics devoted to understanding the biology of the host-parasite and vector-parasite interactions. The chapter by Dr. Kamhawi on the Leishmania parasites within the digestive tract of phlebotomine sand flies summarizes important aspects relevant to parasite transmission, namely, the relationship of LPG to parasite vector-midgut association as well as the effect of salivary components on the transmission of disease. The interactions of the parasite with the macrophage are covered in the next two chapters. The immunological consequences of receptor-ligand interactions (CR3, FcR, CR1) utilized in parasite uptake in terms of the establishment and maintenance of infection are presented (Drs. Mosser and Brittingham). This section discusses the differences between the promastigotes (seen only in the initiation of infection) and amastigote (found during chronic infection in the mammalian host) developmental stages in these processes. The effect of infection on the function of macrophages is relevant to immunology (as macrophages are important antigen-presenting cells). The parasite clearly causes impairment in the signal transduction pathways utilized for macrophage activation by various cytokines and chemokines; hence, these signal transduction pathways may represent potential chemotherapeutic targets. This topic is discussed in the chapter by Dr. Matlashewski. The chapter by Drs. Zilberstein and Ephros covers chemotherapy, and reviews existing therapies, and discusses what is currently known about the mode of drug action and mechanisms of drug resistance. The last three chapters (Drs. Kaye, Farrell, and Campos-Neto) are focused on what is known concerning the immune response to leishmanial infection - our understanding of the mechanisms of pathogenesis as well as recent progress towards the development of vaccine against cutaneous leishmaniasis. Concise, these provide a thoughtful overview of what has been determined about immune mechanisms that control infection. The chapter on cutaneous leishmaniasis is appropriately focused on Leishmania major, which has been the mainstay of immunological studies. However, given the distinctions found for New World Leishmania (L. mexicana complex) from L. major, additional information concerning this aspect would have provided a more complete picture of the diversity of pathogenesis. The fact that we need to know more about the human immune response to infection is underscored in these chapters and the important advances made in the past decade concerning the immunological features of visceral and cutaneous diseases are clearly presented. In short, "World Class Parasites: LEISHMANIA" provides a long overdue concise, yet comprehensive current overview of the leishmaniases - what has been learnt over the past 25 years - and what remains to be understood about this interesting genus of parasitic protozoans!
Diane McMahon-Pratt, Kinetoplastid Biology and Disease 2003, 2:9