Editors: Heiman F.L. Wertheim, Peter Horby and John P. Woodall
Publisher: Wiley – Blackwell – 280 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

To get a comprehensive, detailed view of major human infectious diseases around the world, you probably cannot find a better resource than the Atlas of Human Infectious Diseases.  It is filled with numerous full-color maps of where numerous diseases are. If you are involved in areas of health care in which information on diseases worldwide or even within a give country is needed, this atlas is for you.

At a glance, you can view areas with reported infections and outbreaks. The maps are accompanied by concise outlines and summaries and crucial information on the infectious agent and its clinical and epidemiological characteristics.

The maps presented are quite recent, considering that the spread of diseases is rapid.

Some features of this book:

  • It presents around 150 superior-quality color maps of all major infectious diseases
  • It provides important information on the illustrated infectious diseases
  • It has been compiled and reviewed by an editorial board of infectious disease experts from around the world

The book is designed with a consistent format. Some 120 experts contributed material. The three editors of this volume have put together the data which gives you quite recent information that is essential for you to understand the global distribution of infectious diseases.

Among the professionals for whom the Atlas of Human Infectious Diseases is useful, are  those who work in infectious disease control, microbiologists, public health specialists, travel medicine professionals, and virologists. Anyone else who is interested in this area of medicine will find this book indispensable.

Purchasers of this book get a free enhanced Wiley Desktop Edition – an interactive digital version of the book with features such as book-marking, cross-referencing, downloadable images and text, highlighting and note-taking facilities, in-text searching, and linking to references and glossary terms.

The diseases on which critical data, information and maps are presented too numerous to mention here. The types of infectious diseases covered in this book are: bacterial, fungal, parasitic and viral.

Among the common bacterial diseases on which you will find information are: anthrax, botulism, cholera, diphtheria, leprosy, Lyme disease, meningitis, pertussis, plague, pneumococcal disease, tetanus, trachoma and tuberculosis. But there many others that re uncommon.

Viral infections are the most numerous listed. Common ones are of course covered, but have you heard of bumyamvera viral fever?…chikungunya fever?…lassa fever?…mayaro fever? …oropouche viral disease?… sindbis fever?…zika fever? You can read up on these diseases in Atlas of Human Infectious Diseases.

Heiman F.L. Wertheim, MD, PhD.
Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Program, Oxford University, Clinical Research Unit, National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, Hanoi, Vietnam; Centre for tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Peter Horby, MBBs, FFPH
Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Program, Oxford University, Clinical Research Unit, National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, Hanoi, Vietnam; Centre for tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

John P. Woodall, MA, PhD.
ProMED-mail co-founder and Associate Editor, Institute of Medical Biochemistry, Centre for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (retired).