Publisher's Synopsis
"Understanding Infectious Disease" attempts to bridge the gap between basic and clinical microbiology. Adopting a problem-solving approach to infectious disease, the text is organized by organ system and discusses many clinical cases. It presents an introduction to pathogenesis with chapters on the characteristics of micro-organisms, the microbe-host interaction, and anti-microbial agents.;Each section opens with an overview of clinically pertinent infections of the system in question, and their predominant etiology, source transmission and incidence. Each discussion includes a case history, the source of the pathogen, means of transportation, mechanism of disease, host response and self-assessment questions relating back to the case history.