Human Infectious Disease and Public Health

Written primarily for 16-19 year old students, this primer aims to extend students' knowledge and inspire them to take their school-level learning further. It explores topics that are familiar from the curriculum and also introduces new ideas, giving students a first taste of the study of biology beyond school-level and demonstrating how concepts frequently encountered at school are relevant to and applied in current research. This is the ideal text to support students who are considering making the transition from studying biology at school to university.

Infectious disease will affect most of us at some point in our lives, despite tremendous advances in medicine over the past century. We all still fall ill from pathogens in our everyday environments - but many of us now survive infections which would have proved fatal in the past. Our understanding of the nature of infectious diseases continues to grow - as does our understanding of the human immune system. We continue to develop drugs and public health regimens to attempt to treat or prevent more and more diseases from causing acute sickness and/or long-term health problems - and indeed, we have been successful at eradicating (or almost eradicating) a number of previously common illnesses over the past fifty years.

This text explores the structure and function of each distinct type of pathogen (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and prion disease), as well as the biochemical processes taking place when an infection is caused by any of these agents. It goes on to look at the role the human immune system plays in preventing, containing and destroying pathogens which enter the human body, using up to date research to ensure that students are abreast of the most recent developments in immunology. The text also examines the "evolutionary arms race" between human beings and infectious disease, looking at genetic traits which confer protection against some infectious diseases, and how pathogens are constantly changing to work around our defences.

The final section of the primer explores disease prevention and treatment - antibiotics, antivirals and antifungal agents and their mechanisms of action; public health and vaccination; the dangers of antibiotic resistance; and potential sources for new antimicrobial agents around the world.

Online resources
For students:
Online quizzes for each chapter so that students can quickly check their understanding of the key concepts

For teachers:
Artwork from the book in easy-to-download format, for use in class materials and handouts