Emerging Infections 10, Section A

Course overview

This excellent and readable text, the result of efforts on the part of 50 contributors, addresses the very important issue of emerging infection scenarios. Even with the marvelous advances in antimicrobial therapy, worldwide efforts at eradicating certain infectious agents, and generally improving conditions in many parts of the world, the scourge of emerging infections remains ever-present. Some of these scenarios involve recently appearing organisms like the Zika virus and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). Other situations are cases of previously recognized infectious diseases reappearing in our lives and causing havoc, e.g., Ebola virus, Bordetella pertussis, and Chikungunya virus. Still, other difficulties arise from the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in organisms with which we are very familiar, such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Enterobacteriaceae.