The accurate and reliable diagnosis of transmissible diseases is the most powerful weapon available to ensure their control, and in some cases eradication. The detection of parasites in clinical cases, companion and farm animals, and in the environment is relatively easy since many of them are visible to the naked eye, and those that are not are readily detected by light microscopy. Fungal infections can similarly be determined. Bacteria are somewhat harder to detect. Although their presence can frequently be detected by light microscopy, differential diagnosis, beyond their gross morphology, is almost always impossible. However, most bacterial pathogens can be cultured in the laboratory and can be accurately identified by combinations of a series of simple tests such as morphology, staining, antibiotic sensitivity, biochemical analyses, nutrient dependence, and phage sensitivity. Viruses, however, have proved much more difficult; their size and absolute dependence of the host cell for propagation have rendered useless the methods traditionally used for other microorganisms. Until the development of tissue culture in the middle of this century, diagnosis was entirely dependent on the skill and experience of the clinician. But this was an unreliable process since many of the common virus infections exhibit similar clinical symptoms, such as coryza, exanthema, vomiting, diarrhea, neuralgia, and lethargy. Indeed many viral infections display clinical signs that are indistinguishable from bacterial or parasitic infections.

Product Description: Maintaining the features that made the previous editions so successful, the Third Edition of Laboratory Diagnosis of Viral Infections summarizes the clinical, epidemiological, pathogenetic, and immunological features of a certain disease or infection-providing laboratorians with a practical tool for the principles and techniques used in diagnostic virology...read more

Product Description: Here's a practical resource on the diagnosis of viral pathogens. Organized by clinical syndrome, it guides readers from presenting signs through discussions of which viruses might be involved to a definitive laboratory diagnosis...read more

Product Description: Medical virology has undergone a revolution of diagnostic and scientific approaches through the advent of molecular biological techniques. This is reflected in the topics collected in this volume, which present classical and molecular techniques currently used in medical virology for the diagnosis of virus infections and for the further analysis of virus-specific antibodies and clinical virus isolates...read more

Product Description: Today the diagnosis of human and animal pathogenic viruses would be unthinkable without the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The short-styled protocols in this volume elucidate this important technique and its application in the laboratory, including a discussion of recent advances in PCR technology...read more

Product Description: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most sensitive method for revealing the presence of otherwise undetectable quantities of the genome of RNA or DNA of human viruses. The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for Human Viral Diagnosis addresses the urgent need to use this revolutionary technology in reference and routine diagnostic laboratories...read more

Product Description: This book should fulfill physicians' needs for a guide enabling them to quickly identify viral infections and establish etiology leading to successful intervention. This portable handbook is a ready-reference guide to the symptoms and the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of viral diseases...read more

Product Description: This book presents a wide variety of immuno-gold techniques for use in virus diagnosis and research. Protocols are presented for state-of-the-art techniques, including in situ hybridization, freeze substitution, and the utilization of ultra-small probes and replicas for use by virologists and electron microscopists identifying and studying viruses, their components, and replication in cells...read more

Product Description: Aims to offer an authoritative update on the diagnosis, therapy and prevention of viral infections. It bridges the gap between basic sicence and clinical application and should be useful for anyone in the field of infectious disease. Aims to be in-depth yet succinct in style.