Introduction to Clinical Infectious Diseases

The field of infectious diseases drifts and shifts as new pathogens emerge or re-emerge, new treatment modalities become available, and new prevention strategies are implemented. Students of medicine and the clinically experienced teachers who help to steer their education will benefit from Clinical Infectious Diseases: A Problem-Based Approach because each chapter first defines a clinical diagnosis and moves to descriptions of common and/or classic causes of the problem while including tables, lists and descriptions of the rare and unusual etiologies we all find so fascinating. General management approaches are included to help build foundations of clinical care of infections including, but not limited to the administration of antibiotics. Reminders of classic complications seen with specific infections and/or their treatment are used to emphasize the importance of ongoing vigilance even after a specific microbiologic diagnosis has been identified. Common causes of each problem are emphasized. Unusual and rare causes are mentioned briefly with clinical clues about when to consider them. Case descriptions are used to support, facilitate, and refine the learner’s deductive clinical reasoning skills. The book is written for a broad audience of medical trainees by a diverse group of medical experts, then edited by an infectious disease physician-scientist-educator to maintain a primary focus on the infection aspects of each problem. Basic content is reviewed first, then layered with advancing complexity. Call-out boxes are used to emphasize key concepts while figures and tables provide insights into more complex, rare but important and/or classic features of infection. As such, the book will appeal to a broad range of students and trainees from those just entering the health care field to those who have already reached subspecialty training.