Product Description

The world is becoming smaller, and health care workers are increasingly confronted with heretofore "exotic" and "rare" diseases contracted in or otherwise introduced from distant countries. Exotic Viral Disease: A Global Guide is written for the clinician, and deals with the epidemiology, signs, symptoms, and treatment of all unusual viral infections of man. The authors are among the leading opinion makers in the field of Geographic Medicine, and have collected a wealth of important, practical, and up-to-date information, which would otherwise be unavailable in one source to physicians. A chapter has been added to include information about SARS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #614236 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 252 pages

Book Info
Tel Aviv Univ., Israel. Pocket-sized reference provides information to diagnosing more than 55 alien viral diseases. Features tables and includes key vectors, virus transmission routes, reservoirs for exotic viruses, and clinical syndromes. Insert (inserted June '03) includes new data on SARS. This data will be included in the reprint of the text and CD. Softcover.

About the Author
'Professor of Medicine Sackler School of Medicine Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv, Israel Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory College of Veterinary Medicine Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Professor, Department of Medicine Centre for Travel and Tropical Medicine Toronto General Hospital University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario

Customer Reviews

A must-have for the ID groupie or world traveler
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.

An excellent guide for non-epidemiologists
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.

A perfect companion to the CCDM
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!