Fighting Infection in the 21st Century

The 20th century has seen improvements in both public health and disease prevention which, in turn, have had a dramatic impact on our lives. Success in preventing infection by vaccination and treating infection with antibiotics led some to believe that infectious disease was a thing of the past. However, the adaptability of pathogens and the emergence of new diseases has presented microbiologists with a fresh set of challenges as we enter the new millennium. While celebrating past successes and highlighting developing problems, this volume aims to address some of the issues facing microbiologists in the future. Covering a wide range of topics, it will provide an invaluable resource for microbiologists and an excellent reference for advanced students.

1. The Global Threat of Emerging Infectious Disease.

2. Can Molecular Techniques be Used in the Prevention of Contamination of Processed Food by Pathogens?.

3. Is Global Clean Water Attainable?.

4. Vaccine Development: Past, Present and Future.

5. Life Attenuated Vectors: Have They Delivered?.

6. New Malaria Vaccines: The DNA–MVA Prime–Boost Strategy.

7. Prospects for New and Rediscovered Therapies: Probiotics and Phage.

8. Vaccine Production in Plants.

9. Conserved Epitopes in Bacterial Lipopolysaccharides and Cross–Reactive Antibodies in the Treatment of Endotoxicosis and Gram–Negative Septic Shock.

10. Biological Terrorism.

11. Characterization of Biochemical Isolates with Molecular Techniques: Multilocus Sequence Typing.

12. Lessons from the First Antibiotic Era.

13. New Strategies for Identifying and Developing Novel Vaccines: Genome Based Discoveries.

14. Are Molecular Methods the Optimum Route to Antimicrobial Drugs?