Richard A. Kaslow – författare

Infectious diseases are commonly regarded as a distinct category, with different causes and patterns than chronic or genetic disease. But in fact there are many varieties of genetic susceptibility to infection, the subject of this book, which will be divided into three sections: 1) concepts and methods, 2) genes and pathophysiologic mechanisms, and 3) infectious agents and diseases. No currently published text on either genetics or infectious diseases focuses on the genetic aspects of the special relationship between host and pathogen in the way envisioned for Section 1. No other work on the selected genes regulating immunity deals as systematically with the sequence variation/function relationships most pertinent to infection as planned for Section 2. And no other book gives as meaningful a picture of how these genes operate in infectious disease as Section 3 will.

This new edition of Viral Infections of Humans: Epidemiology and Control is a timely reference that provides scholars, teachers, and students of epidemiology and infectious diseases with a current, comprehensive summary of what is known about the causes and consequences of infection with every virus known to cause significant human infection, emphasizing its impact at the population level. It presents the latest concepts, methods, and technologies in epidemiology, detection, investigation, modeling, and intervention.While chapters include core virologic and clinical knowledge that may have changed little in the years since the publication of the fifth edition, these chapters also reflect the variable, often substantial degree to which the epidemiology and approaches to control have evolved. The reference includes both updated and new chapters that either greatly expand on material covered only superficially in the previous edition or introduce viruses just recently discovered to affect human populations. Each chapter presents information in a uniform way, summarizing the methodology, biological characteristics, descriptive epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis, control, and prevention for each virus.Among the contents covered include authoritative information on more recent developments and discoveries such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); updates on the rapid advances in control of hepatitis C, influenza, and human papilloma virus-related diseases; and other new developments in the field.The expanded and updated sixth edition of Viral Infections of Humans offers a uniquely comprehensive perspective on viruses in humans, from agents of classic diseases (e.g., hepatitis, measles, polio, rabies, and yellow fever), to those with greatest pandemic impact (e.g., influenza and human immunodeficiency virus), to those discovered relatively recently (e.g., henipavirus, metapneumovirus, and norovirus). It is an essential reference for epidemiology, public health, and medical students; epidemiologists; academic and practicing public health professionals; infectious disease physicians; internists and pediatricians; biopharmaceutical industry professionals; health policy-makers; and fellows and other established professionals in these fields.

Striking changes have occurred in the world since the publication of the last edition of Viral Infections of Humans. The global population is rapidly approaching 8 billion; climate change is leading to the introduction of new hosts, vectors and virus diseases heretofore never seen in many parts of the world; technological advances have revolutionized the ability to recognize and characterize viruses new and old; vaccines are altering the epidemiological landscape of the diseases they target, in some cases raising the hope of their eradication and remarkably powerful computational tools are enabling not only detection of outbreaks of disease much sooner than in the past but also, through complex mathematical modeling, more accurate prediction of their potential impact.The new Fifth Edition of Viral Infections of Humans captures the both the excitement and frustration of the dynamic struggle between humankind and the viruses that continue to cause immense suffering.  It presents the latest concepts, methods and technologies in epidemiology, detection, investigation, modeling and intervention. Updated and entirely new chapters by dozens of experts across the field provide analytic summaries of current knowledge of viruses and prions causing acute syndromes, chronic illnesses and/or malignancies. In sum, this ambitiously expanded volume offers a uniquely comprehensive perspective on viruses in humans, from agents of classic diseases (e.g., hepatitis, measles, polio, rabies and yellow fever), to those with greatest pandemic impact (e.g., influenza and human immunodeficiency virus), to those discovered relatively recently (e.g., henipavirus, metapneumovirus and norovirus).The new Fifth Edition of Viral Infections of Humans is an invaluable reference for students, fellows and established professionals in the fields of microbiology, public health and infectious disease epidemiology, medicine and health policy.