- Email: [email protected]
Infectious Diseases and Arthropods
Public Health 123 (2009) 822–823
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Public Health journal homepage: www.elsevierhealth.com/journals/pubh
Book Reviews Infectious Diseases and Arthropods, Jerome Goddard. Humana Press, New Jersey (2009). ISBN: 978 1 60327 399 2 Of all the insects and other arthropods with which we share our environment there are a few hundred that have the capability to either cause physical harm by biting or stinging or else acting as vectors of disease causing organisms. Although most of these are rooted in the tropics an increasing number of arthropod transmitted infections are being reported from more temperate zones, either because we have just identified something previously overlooked, as was the case with Lyme borreliosis until the early 1980s, or else because disease vectors and/or associated diseases have spread their geographic base. Examples of the latter are West Nile virus in North America or Chikungunya virus in Europe. In this book Jerome Goddard, a medical entomologist, gives a brief summary of many of these conditions and the vectors that transmit them. However, I am not sure who the book is intended for as it is short on detail for both entomologists and clinicians, although some elements are quite comprehensive. My suspicion is that it is primarily aimed at the physician either in general practice or in the emergency room dealing with a set of puzzling symptoms that do not fit other conditions. As a result it is rather oriented towards North America in both content and presentation, including recommended treatments. The book is mostly a redrafting of a series of articles on ‘‘Bug vectors’’ previously published in Infections in Medicine. The result is that there is quite a lot of repetition, some minor contradiction, and inconsistency of style. There are also strange anomalies, such as the description of pathology of insect bites, something I feel is fundamental to understanding of other aspects of host/vector interaction, appears as chapter 12 whereas it should be chapter 2, immediately following the description of arthropod types and before the discussion of disease transmission. As the book seems to set out to be reasonably comprehensive, it is strange that several conditions are mentioned in passing but never described. Examples are chigoe fleas (Tunga penetrans), which are often encountered as infestation in trekkers and other travellers to Africa or South America; guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) – not transmitted by insects but by copepod arthropods in water; and Loa loa worms; whereas some rather rarer human infections, like babesiosis, are devoted quite a lot of space. The book is profusely illustrated but most of the images are of poor quality. Maps redrawn from WHO or CDC publications are either too small to show the details required or simply unclear in reproduction, with no consistency of style. Many drawings are not helpful, such as those of three species of Anopheles mosquitoes intended to illustrate malaria vectors from three continents but which look so similar that they are not helpful. Worst of all are the photographs, some of which have been reproduced so badly the average photocopier would do no worse. Despite these drawbacks I think this is a useful book as it falls somewhere between Manson’s Tropical Diseases and Lane and Crosskey’s Medical Insects and Arachnids and I shall use it as a quick
reference source when I need to refresh my memory on many of the conditions described. It is also readable and accessible for the non-specialist, potentially suiting clinicians, nurse specialists, and environmental health practitioners. However, whether it is worth the publisher’s price is a bit open to question. Ian F. Burgess Medical Entomology Centre, Insect Research & Development Limited, 6 Quy Court, Colliers Lane, Quy, Cambridge, CB25 9AU, UK E-mail address: [email protected] 8 September 2009 Available online 6 October 2009 doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2009.09.003
Nutrition in Institutions, Maria Cross, Barbara MacDonald. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK (2009). ISBN: 978-1-40512125-5 Nutrition in Institutions addresses the history and current provision of nutrition in five different institutional settings: schools, hospitals, elderly care homes, prisons and the armed forces. Each chapter provides an extensive history of the evolvement of the care setting itself as related to meal provision, current nutritional care standards and improvement initiatives. The content is primarily related to services within the UK, but also includes other parts of Europe and, to some extent, the US. References appear appropriate, and the authors intersperse quotes throughout the text. Most text is based on historical documents and committees as opposed to research-based findings. My research focus is on nutritional issues in long term care, or ‘‘care homes for the elderly’’. This chapter underscored a number of issues that remain salient to this care setting after so many years, in the United States and internationally. Some of these issues include: the importance, and difficulty, of providing residents choice in dining; the conflict between special diets prescribed for medical reasons versus quality of life; the vital role that mealtime serves in daily socialization and quality of life; and insufficient staff to provide feeding assistance to all those who need it as well as concerns about the adequacy of staff training. These issues remain of upmost importance in long term care facilities today. Fortunately, a growing number of research studies have been conducted within the past decade related to these issues. Standards and regulations also have been developed within the last decade for these care settings. Once these regulations were in place, there were noted inconsistencies between geographic regions and different ‘‘inspectors’’ that highlighted the need to require training for all inspectors or, minimally, guidance on how to interpret the established standards. The lack of consistency in the inspection process
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Public Health journal homepage: www.elsevierhealth.com/journals/pubh
Book Reviews Infectious Diseases and Arthropods, Jerome Goddard. Humana Press, New Jersey (2009). ISBN: 978 1 60327 399 2 Of all the insects and other arthropods with which we share our environment there are a few hundred that have the capability to either cause physical harm by biting or stinging or else acting as vectors of disease causing organisms. Although most of these are rooted in the tropics an increasing number of arthropod transmitted infections are being reported from more temperate zones, either because we have just identified something previously overlooked, as was the case with Lyme borreliosis until the early 1980s, or else because disease vectors and/or associated diseases have spread their geographic base. Examples of the latter are West Nile virus in North America or Chikungunya virus in Europe. In this book Jerome Goddard, a medical entomologist, gives a brief summary of many of these conditions and the vectors that transmit them. However, I am not sure who the book is intended for as it is short on detail for both entomologists and clinicians, although some elements are quite comprehensive. My suspicion is that it is primarily aimed at the physician either in general practice or in the emergency room dealing with a set of puzzling symptoms that do not fit other conditions. As a result it is rather oriented towards North America in both content and presentation, including recommended treatments. The book is mostly a redrafting of a series of articles on ‘‘Bug vectors’’ previously published in Infections in Medicine. The result is that there is quite a lot of repetition, some minor contradiction, and inconsistency of style. There are also strange anomalies, such as the description of pathology of insect bites, something I feel is fundamental to understanding of other aspects of host/vector interaction, appears as chapter 12 whereas it should be chapter 2, immediately following the description of arthropod types and before the discussion of disease transmission. As the book seems to set out to be reasonably comprehensive, it is strange that several conditions are mentioned in passing but never described. Examples are chigoe fleas (Tunga penetrans), which are often encountered as infestation in trekkers and other travellers to Africa or South America; guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) – not transmitted by insects but by copepod arthropods in water; and Loa loa worms; whereas some rather rarer human infections, like babesiosis, are devoted quite a lot of space. The book is profusely illustrated but most of the images are of poor quality. Maps redrawn from WHO or CDC publications are either too small to show the details required or simply unclear in reproduction, with no consistency of style. Many drawings are not helpful, such as those of three species of Anopheles mosquitoes intended to illustrate malaria vectors from three continents but which look so similar that they are not helpful. Worst of all are the photographs, some of which have been reproduced so badly the average photocopier would do no worse. Despite these drawbacks I think this is a useful book as it falls somewhere between Manson’s Tropical Diseases and Lane and Crosskey’s Medical Insects and Arachnids and I shall use it as a quick
reference source when I need to refresh my memory on many of the conditions described. It is also readable and accessible for the non-specialist, potentially suiting clinicians, nurse specialists, and environmental health practitioners. However, whether it is worth the publisher’s price is a bit open to question. Ian F. Burgess Medical Entomology Centre, Insect Research & Development Limited, 6 Quy Court, Colliers Lane, Quy, Cambridge, CB25 9AU, UK E-mail address: [email protected] 8 September 2009 Available online 6 October 2009 doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2009.09.003
Nutrition in Institutions, Maria Cross, Barbara MacDonald. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK (2009). ISBN: 978-1-40512125-5 Nutrition in Institutions addresses the history and current provision of nutrition in five different institutional settings: schools, hospitals, elderly care homes, prisons and the armed forces. Each chapter provides an extensive history of the evolvement of the care setting itself as related to meal provision, current nutritional care standards and improvement initiatives. The content is primarily related to services within the UK, but also includes other parts of Europe and, to some extent, the US. References appear appropriate, and the authors intersperse quotes throughout the text. Most text is based on historical documents and committees as opposed to research-based findings. My research focus is on nutritional issues in long term care, or ‘‘care homes for the elderly’’. This chapter underscored a number of issues that remain salient to this care setting after so many years, in the United States and internationally. Some of these issues include: the importance, and difficulty, of providing residents choice in dining; the conflict between special diets prescribed for medical reasons versus quality of life; the vital role that mealtime serves in daily socialization and quality of life; and insufficient staff to provide feeding assistance to all those who need it as well as concerns about the adequacy of staff training. These issues remain of upmost importance in long term care facilities today. Fortunately, a growing number of research studies have been conducted within the past decade related to these issues. Standards and regulations also have been developed within the last decade for these care settings. Once these regulations were in place, there were noted inconsistencies between geographic regions and different ‘‘inspectors’’ that highlighted the need to require training for all inspectors or, minimally, guidance on how to interpret the established standards. The lack of consistency in the inspection process