E-raamat: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Peiris (microbiology, U. of Hong Kong, China), Anderson (respiratory and enteric viruses, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US), Osterhaus (virology, Erasmus Medical Center, the Netherlands), Stohr (Global Influenza Programme, CDS/CSR/RMD, Switzerland), and Yuen (microbiology, U. of Hong Kong) present a round-up of current knowledge on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the emergent syndrome that prompted a recent World Health Organization global health alert. The 25 papers they include discuss clinical presentation in adults and children and consider issues of the radiology, viral diagnosis, pathology and pathogenesis, epidemiology, and aetiology of SARS. Antiviral agents and vaccines are then explored. They also examine issues of public health response in Singapore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere; look at the economic costs of SARS; and consider lessons of SARS for pandemic influenza. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Prompting the first WHO global health alert for over a decade, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first recognised in South-East Asia in February 2003.

With the causative agent now identified as a new strain of coronavirus, the medical world has gained important knowledge on the aetiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, pathogenesis, epidemiology, disease treatment and infection control with amazing speed.

Despite this, major gaps remain in our understanding - the race is on to develop new cures and effective vaccines, and the long-term impact on health, society and economics are starting to unravel.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome: A Clinical Guide meets the urgent need for a comprehensive, authoritative reference guide for everyone in the medical and scientific community engaged in the fight against SARS:

• Definitive book on SARS, clearly and accurately documenting the extraordinary medical and scientific events around this new epidemic
  
• International experts in the field, with many contributors from the WHO and CDC
  
• Will help reader to understand and prevent future outbreaks with a repeat of the same consequences