[Emerging Infectious Diseases]                                                         
[Volume 4 No. 3 / July - September 1998]

Book Review

Emerging Infections

R.M. Krause, Editor. Academic Press, New York, 1998, 513 pages.

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Emerging Infections is the first volume in a new series entitled Biomedical
Research Reports, edited by John Gallin and Anthony Fauci. The volume
contains 17 chapters, all outstanding and for the most part both timely and
comprehensive, written by experts in the field. After an intellectually
stimulating introductory chapter by Richard Krause, we are treated to an
analysis of epidemics by one of the supreme authorities, Roy Anderson of
Oxford University. Included here is a valuable discussion on the
transmission of microbial infections in populations as well as the
development of drug resistance.

Chapters on emerging bacterial diseases include a superb one on Persisting
Problems in Tuberculosis, by McKinney, Jacobs, and Bloom, which is right up
to date yet includes fascinating literary quotes, from Charles Dickens to
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The possible role of mobile genetic elements in the
emergence of new strains of cholera is briefly discussed by Rubin, Waldor,
and Mekalanos. Escherichia coli O157:H7 and its evolution as an emerging
infectious disease are considered by Whittam, McGraw, and Reid. A useful
overview of group A streptococcal diseases, combined with an overview of
staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome, is given by Musser and Krause and
followed by a scholarly account of Lyme disease by Allen Steere. Finally,
Davies and Webb devote nearly 40 pages to a discussion of the emergence of
antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

There are six chapters on viral diseases, beginning with Robert Webster on
influenza, the classic pandemic disease threat. Webster's review provides a
remarkably current description (up to mid-1997) of what we know about
influenza pandemics and their origins, including a discussion of the first
H5N1 influenza case in a human in Hong Kong. The emergence of dengue and
the complexities of dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome are
reviewed by Holmes, Bartley, and Garnett of Oxford University, with a
strong emphasis on the epidemiologic aspects. This discussion is followed
by an authoritative review of the AIDS epidemic by Quinn and Fauci, who
include sobering predictions of future epidemics in Asia and Africa.

A short chapter on hantavirus by Nathanson and Nichol is followed by a
searching account of Ebola virus emergences, including fascinating
speculations on their possible origin, by Murphy and Peters. The final
chapter, related to virus diseases, by Tabachnick, considers
arthropod-borne pathogens and is dedicated to George Craig, a leader in the
field of vector biology.

Two chapters are devoted to emerging parasitic diseases. Adel Mahmoud
reviews Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Isospora, and Cyclospora organisms, whose
role in human diseases has only recently been recognized. Karen Day of
Oxford University discusses malarial infection and disease and the factors
that have led to the current world in which the effects of malaria in many
regions are the same or worse than at the turn of the century.

Finally, a chapter on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies by Hope
brings us up to 1996 when new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (bovine
spongiform encephalopathy agent in humans) was first recognized.

Emerging Infections sets a high standard for future volumes in this series.
Nicely produced, it is recommended reading for everyone with an interest in
infectious diseases and in strategies for research, understanding, and
control of the complex factors that lead to infectious disease emergence
and reemergence.

Brian W. J. Mahy
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA



Emerging Infectious Diseases
National Center for Infectious Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, GA

URL: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/EID/vol4no3/ascii/mahy.txt


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