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The Journal of Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases
Book reviews
The Journal of Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases E. Jong, R. Mc Mullen (Eds.); 3rd Edition, Saunders, Elsevier Science, 2003, 644 pages, ISBN 0-7216-7678-2
Despite the increasing range of travel medicine texts to choose from, and the easy availability of information on the internet, The Travel and Tropical Medicine Manual has a secure future. Now in its third edition, this almost little book (truly manual size), packs an awful lot of practical information into a very neat and handy format. The title of the book addresses quite effectively the misconception that travel medicine is concerned only with exotic infectious diseases, and offers chapters on a broad range of travel health matters, from expatriate issues to high altitude and diving medicine. The Manual is organised into six major sections, starting quite logically with pre-travel advice and then working through some of the symptoms and syndromes that travellers or denizens of the tropics might bring to clinicians, such as ‘Fever’, ‘Diarrhoea’, and ‘Skin Lesions’. Additional sections deal with ‘Sexually Transmitted Diseases’ and in the broadest sense, ‘Worms’. Most usefully, an entire section is devoted to travellers with special needs, such as the immunocompromised, the pregnant, and the very young. Also included are chapters which offer guidance for situations not likely to be encountered on an everyday basis in most practices, but for which when they do arise, a quick and concise ‘how to’ is a welcome godsend. An example of this is the chapter on the health screening of refugees, immigrants, and internationally adopted children. From the travel clinic perspective, the ‘big issues’ such as malaria prevention and immunisation are comprehensively, yet concisely, dealt with. Readers should find the liberal use of tables detailing schedules and regimens of great benefit in situations where quick answers are required for specific clinical questions. In this regard the chapter dealing with the HIV-positive traveller is particularly blessed, listing problematic drug interactions and the travel related illnesses clinicians managing the HIV-positive ought to be en garde for. A specific criticism of this chapter is that it seems to understate the threat that malaria poses to the HIV-positive traveller: work from Africa shows that HIV and falciparum malaria interact detrimentally, yet the chapter denies there is known significant interaction. The book achieves a useful balance in the way it stratifies the information on offer: some chapters are more general in content, offering an approach to a subject area, while others focus in on specific disease entities. Examples of the former would be the chapters headed ‘Approach to tropical dermatology’ and ‘Emerging infectious diseases and the international traveller’; examples of the latter would be chapters devoted to Lyme disease, African sleeping sickness, and Chagas’ disease. The book also strikes the right balance in terms of common versus exotica. While the big issues are well
111
covered, the busy practitioner wanting a quick and concise refresher on the unusual is unlikely to be disappointed: just the right amount of information is available on topics such as louse-borne relapsing fever and Bartonellosis. Readers are told where such diseases occur, how they might present, and how they might be diagnosed. Importantly, content on exotica is easily located, and is generally to be found placed on a single page. The Manual does suffer from one problem which has become all too common in the era of the software spellchecker: a reading from cover to cover reveals a number of typographical errors. This is a minor and pedantic complaint, but a preventable one. The Manual is an American publication, with only two contributors from outside that country, of whom one is Canadian. This of necessity means that the book adopts a North American perspective on matters. This is reflected when considering the drugs and vaccines that are mentioned as being available for use, and in the further information sources that readers are referred to. The very few criticisms levelled above are a fair indication of just how useful most involved in travel or tropical medicine, be they nurses or doctors, will find The Manual. It is just small enough to accompany the busy travel medicine practitioner on his rounds, and just big enough to act as a very useful first reference. The Manual is well conceived. It contains just the sort of information, at just the right level of detail, that most busy practitioners are likely to require. My recommendation would be that if you were allowed just one text on travel or tropical medicine, this should be it.
Stephen Toovey* SAA-Netcare Travel Clinics, South Africa and Mozambique, P.O. Box 786692 Sandton 2146, South Africa E-mail address: [email protected]
15 December 2003 *Tel.: þ27-11-807-3132; fax: þ 27-11-883-6152.. doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.03.005
Tropical Health in the Top End Fay Johnston (Ed.), Top End Division of General Practice (GPO Box 757, Darwin, NT 0801, Australia, http://www. tedgp.asn.au); Darwin, 2003, 164 pages, 1st ed, paperback with illustrations, AUD42.50, ISBN 1877021024
At last, there is a user-friendly manual dealing the special tropical health problems of northern Australia, which has also been produced in a very attractive
The Journal of Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases E. Jong, R. Mc Mullen (Eds.); 3rd Edition, Saunders, Elsevier Science, 2003, 644 pages, ISBN 0-7216-7678-2
Despite the increasing range of travel medicine texts to choose from, and the easy availability of information on the internet, The Travel and Tropical Medicine Manual has a secure future. Now in its third edition, this almost little book (truly manual size), packs an awful lot of practical information into a very neat and handy format. The title of the book addresses quite effectively the misconception that travel medicine is concerned only with exotic infectious diseases, and offers chapters on a broad range of travel health matters, from expatriate issues to high altitude and diving medicine. The Manual is organised into six major sections, starting quite logically with pre-travel advice and then working through some of the symptoms and syndromes that travellers or denizens of the tropics might bring to clinicians, such as ‘Fever’, ‘Diarrhoea’, and ‘Skin Lesions’. Additional sections deal with ‘Sexually Transmitted Diseases’ and in the broadest sense, ‘Worms’. Most usefully, an entire section is devoted to travellers with special needs, such as the immunocompromised, the pregnant, and the very young. Also included are chapters which offer guidance for situations not likely to be encountered on an everyday basis in most practices, but for which when they do arise, a quick and concise ‘how to’ is a welcome godsend. An example of this is the chapter on the health screening of refugees, immigrants, and internationally adopted children. From the travel clinic perspective, the ‘big issues’ such as malaria prevention and immunisation are comprehensively, yet concisely, dealt with. Readers should find the liberal use of tables detailing schedules and regimens of great benefit in situations where quick answers are required for specific clinical questions. In this regard the chapter dealing with the HIV-positive traveller is particularly blessed, listing problematic drug interactions and the travel related illnesses clinicians managing the HIV-positive ought to be en garde for. A specific criticism of this chapter is that it seems to understate the threat that malaria poses to the HIV-positive traveller: work from Africa shows that HIV and falciparum malaria interact detrimentally, yet the chapter denies there is known significant interaction. The book achieves a useful balance in the way it stratifies the information on offer: some chapters are more general in content, offering an approach to a subject area, while others focus in on specific disease entities. Examples of the former would be the chapters headed ‘Approach to tropical dermatology’ and ‘Emerging infectious diseases and the international traveller’; examples of the latter would be chapters devoted to Lyme disease, African sleeping sickness, and Chagas’ disease. The book also strikes the right balance in terms of common versus exotica. While the big issues are well
111
covered, the busy practitioner wanting a quick and concise refresher on the unusual is unlikely to be disappointed: just the right amount of information is available on topics such as louse-borne relapsing fever and Bartonellosis. Readers are told where such diseases occur, how they might present, and how they might be diagnosed. Importantly, content on exotica is easily located, and is generally to be found placed on a single page. The Manual does suffer from one problem which has become all too common in the era of the software spellchecker: a reading from cover to cover reveals a number of typographical errors. This is a minor and pedantic complaint, but a preventable one. The Manual is an American publication, with only two contributors from outside that country, of whom one is Canadian. This of necessity means that the book adopts a North American perspective on matters. This is reflected when considering the drugs and vaccines that are mentioned as being available for use, and in the further information sources that readers are referred to. The very few criticisms levelled above are a fair indication of just how useful most involved in travel or tropical medicine, be they nurses or doctors, will find The Manual. It is just small enough to accompany the busy travel medicine practitioner on his rounds, and just big enough to act as a very useful first reference. The Manual is well conceived. It contains just the sort of information, at just the right level of detail, that most busy practitioners are likely to require. My recommendation would be that if you were allowed just one text on travel or tropical medicine, this should be it.
Stephen Toovey* SAA-Netcare Travel Clinics, South Africa and Mozambique, P.O. Box 786692 Sandton 2146, South Africa E-mail address: [email protected]
15 December 2003 *Tel.: þ27-11-807-3132; fax: þ 27-11-883-6152.. doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.03.005
Tropical Health in the Top End Fay Johnston (Ed.), Top End Division of General Practice (GPO Box 757, Darwin, NT 0801, Australia, http://www. tedgp.asn.au); Darwin, 2003, 164 pages, 1st ed, paperback with illustrations, AUD42.50, ISBN 1877021024
At last, there is a user-friendly manual dealing the special tropical health problems of northern Australia, which has also been produced in a very attractive