As the title indicates, this text presents concepts and facts about a full spectrum of infectious diseases in a pathobiological framework. The writing is plain and very easily understood.
Many chapters begin with a highlighted box of key concepts.
The book was written for use in courses on medical microbiology and infectious diseases and intended to be a bridge between courses emphasizing agent biology and courses emphasizing the host responses and lesions of microbial diseases. Although written for students of human diseases, every chapter contains information relevant to veterinary medicine as well. The chapters in the first section, Principles, deal with big picture topics important to understanding infectious diseases. Later chapters extend these topics in greater depth and focus. The agent biology chapters are refreshingly organized by pathophysiologic relationships rather than by taxonomic relationships.