LIVROS BOOK REVIEWS

GILLES, H. M., eel. — Recent Advances in. Tropical Medicine — 1. Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1984. 353 p. ilus. 24 cm. ISBN 0 443 02781 1.

It is over 20 years since the last issue of "Recent Advances in Tropical Medicine", but no attempt has been made in this volume to span this long period. Bather, it is concentrated on advances in the last decade and especially in the previous five years, .The impetus provided by the WHO/World Bank Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases is reflected in the choice of diseases selected for review and no pretence is made to cover all the advances in all of the tropical diseases. The importance of basic research is reflected in the inclusion of an account of the "experimental aspects" for some diseases while the application of modern technological advances to the better understanding of tropical disease is covered in some of the general chapters.

This volume was written by 23 experts from the UK, USA, Switzerland, Ghana; Thailand and South America. Contents of the volume: 1. Malaria. Clinical and experimental aspects; 2. African Human Trypanosomiasis; 3. Chagas' Disease. Clinical aspects; 4. Leishmaniasis: Visceral Leishmaniasis — human aspects. Cutaneous Leishmaniasis. Experimental studies of visceral and . cutaneous leishmaniasis; 5. Filarial infections; 6. Onchocerciasis: Clinical aspects. Epidemiological and experimental aspects; 7. Loiasis; 8. Schistosomiasis; 9. Soil-transmitted helminths: treatment; 10. Trematode infections excluding schistosomiasis; 11. Leprosy; 12. Diarrhoeal diseases; 13. Immunodiagnosis of tropical parasitic infections; 14. Molecular biochemical characterisation of human parasites; 15. Pharmacol kinetics of tropical drugs.

PETERS, W. & RICHARDS, W. H. G., ed. — Antimalarial Drugs, v. I. Biological Background; Experimental Methods and Drug Resistance, v. II. Current Antimalarials and New Drug Developments. Berlin,. Springer-Verlag, 1984. 2 v. 243 figs. (Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, v. 68, parts 1 and 2). ISBN 3-540-12616-3 and 3-540-12617-1.

One fifth of the world's population, some S00 million people, are exposed to infection with malaria and one million die from it every year. Antimalarial drugs control the disease in individuals but have never sufficed to erradicate it. Today they are of increasingly less value because many of the malaria parasites have become resistant to them. Yet the most powerful weapons available against malaria until now remain those few drugs and insecticides that can be deployed in comunity-wide mass control programmes. New drugs are therefore urgently needed. This two-volume work presents a critical analysis of the extensive advances made in antimalarial chemotherapy since World War II. Part I of this work is a basic, definitive text for the rational design of antimalarial agents. It will be of particular use to pharmacologists, biologists and biochemists who are concerned with these basic aspects of antimalarials, and with the establishment of new techniques for evaluating them. It will also provide those concerned with new drug development with a clear view of the targets at which to aim the new chemical entities that they design. The subject matter is so treated that it also forms a basic text in numerousaspects of malaria that will be invaluable to parasitologists, biochemists, and physicians who are engaged in research on this and related protozoal diseases of man and animals.

Part II is a definitive review of currently available antimalarial compounds with regard to their chemistry, pharmacology, toxicity, activity in experimental models and in man, and effectiveness. Also considered are promising drugs still in the experimental stage. This authoritative review will help all those concerned with antimalarial drug development to absorb the lessons of the past in preparation for the discovery, development, evaluation and deployment of new, and potencially life-saving, antiparasitic compounds.

KAWAMURA Jr., A. & AOYAMA, Y. — Immunofluorescence in medical Science. Tokyo, University of Tokyo Press; Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1983. 262 p. ilus. ISBN 3-540-12483-7.

Immunofluorescence is a new method of analysis which has evolved from the combination of two entirely different scientific fields: immunological reaction and the fluorescence phenomenon of materials. The Authors of this book have been engaged in the improvement of this technique since they conducted a followup study of Coon's original method about a quarter-century ago. This book was planned in 1979, but finally took form only quite recently.

The first part of this volume includes theory and general instructions and the second part describes specific applications in virology, bacteriology, rickettsiology, tissue antigen examinations and dermatology. The Authors hope that this book, with its numerous color as well as black-and-white photographs, will provide a detailed guide for the readers who wish to understand or use the immunofluorescence technique.

ROBINSON, Derek — Epidemiology and the Community Control of Disease in Warm Climate Countries. Second Edition. Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1985. 767 p. ilus. 24 cm. ISBN 0 443 02655 6. (MEDICINE IN THE TROPICS)

This second edition, completely updated, revised and expanded summarises epidemiological principles and methods, and describes their application to the investigation and control of diseases in warm climate countries.

It covers all the important threats to health in warm climate countries including: air borne infections; food and water borne infections; direct contact infections; vector borne infections; zoonoses and non-infectious illness.

The cause of each disease, how it is transmitted or acquired, methods of prevention and ways in which outbreaks can be controlled and high levels of sickness reduced, are described.

The practical advice and step-by-step guidelines for controlling disease using the limited resources available, emphasising internationally accepted and largely WHO recommendations and methods are given.

Written by a world-wide team of 47 experts including several currently working directly with WHO, this book provides a valuable source of information and advice for all District Health Officers, doctors and nurses in warm climate countries. In cold climate countries it will be useful to medical students and to doctors caring for immigrants and overseas travellers.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  16 Oct 2012
• Date of issue
  Feb 1986