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Tao Sheng Clifford Kwan‐Gett, Charles Kemp, Carrie Kovarik, Infectious and Tropical Diseases: A Handbook for Primary Care, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 14, Issue 5, 1 September 2007, Pages 359–360, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1708-8305.2007.00104.x
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In the context of human history, the global conquest of infectious and tropical diseases has only just begun. Much of the world’s population remains at risk of infectious and tropical diseases and millions die each year. Those health professionals who are on the front line of the fight against infectious and tropical diseases need a reliable ready reference textbook. The first edition of Infectious and Tropical Diseases: A Handbook for Primary Care is a new compact manual designed to help meet this challenge. This first edition of Infectious and Tropical Diseases: A Handbook for Primary Care contains a preface, a list of reviewers, a table of contents, 96 chapters, five appendices, and a comprehensive index. There is no foreword, list of abbreviations, insert of color plates, bibliography, or glossary.
The target audience appears to be primary care‐based doctors and nurses practicing in developing countries, especially those working in the tropics or new to the area of infectious diseases or tropical medicine. It would also be usefully provided to doctors, nurses, and students undertaking courses in tropical or travel medicine or involved with diagnosis of infectious and tropical diseases in travelers or migrants, as an adjunct to standard major reference textbooks in infectious diseases and tropical medicine. The concise style means the handbook is consistent in presentation and easy to read. Infectious and Tropical Diseases: A Handbook for Primary Care is presented as a compact 18 × 10 cm publication, which would fit easily into the clinician’s briefcase, handbag, or even the clinical white coat. The table of contents is conveniently duplicated on the inside front cover and successive pages. There are also no color plates included, which was a highlight of a competing handbook. The tough, laminated cover, printed in four mainly bright colors, adds some protection, particularly if the handbook is used, as expected, in the field. One of the handbook’s main competitors, the second edition of the Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine, reviewed elsewhere, 1 uses a plastic cover for increased durability, incorporates useful bookmark ribbons for convenience, and includes four pages of color plates.
