Description
THE increase in medical knowledge and its application to the treatment and control of communicable diseases has called for a thorough revision of the Synopsis. New chapters have been added on Virus Infections of the Central Nervous System, Acute Respiratory Virus Disease in Children, Cytomegalovirus Infection, Viral Hepatitis, Brucellosis, Leptospirosis, Anthrax, Psittacosis, Q-fever, Toxoplasmosis, Toxocariasis and Rabies. Special attention has been given to chemotherapy and prophylaxis where rapid advances have occurred since publication of the eleventh edition. Appended to each chapter is a list of references to provide the student with additional reading.
The section on bacterial shock has been rewritten. Recent work is included on vaccines and vaccination with reference to whooping cough, measles, rubella, mumps and smallpox. Transferable multiple antibiotic resistance in the enterobacteriaceae and its effect on the chemotherapy of gastro-enteritis, dysentery and salmonellosis receives particular attention. The section on bacterial meningitis includes new material on sulfonamide-resistant meningococci, neonatal meningitis and the treatment of pneumococcal meningitis with cephaloridine. Herpes simplex encephalitis, now recognised as the most lethal of the virus infections of the central nervous system, is described in detail.
The objective of the Synopsis remains the same, namely the presentation within reasonable bounds of essential information on modern practice in infectious diseases. With each edition it becomes more difficult to prepare a small textbook originally intended for the pocket rather than the satchel. An editorial which appeared some years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the subject of the propagation of textbooks likened them to living creatures which grow, assimilate new material and excrete what is no longer useful. In this new edition I have tried to strike a proper balance between assimilation and excretion.
ISBN: 9780195096477
