Viral Encephalitis in Humans
by Boos, J. and Esiri, M.M. (2003)
Published by ASM Press ISBN 1-55581-240-6
Contact details for the publishers are email:
books@asmusa.org
Or www.asmpress.org
Encephalitis: Diagnosis and Treatment
Neurological Disease and Therapy Series
Edited by John J. Halperin, Overlook Hospital, Summit, New Jersey, USA
Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain, usually brought on by a viral infection,
and currently poses a grave threat to patients around the world. With the migration
of West Nile virus into North America, there is a greater awareness and corresponding
need to understand, diagnose and manage these now more common brain disorders. Within
this text international experts will discuss advances in diagnostic tools, as well
as therapeutic approaches that allow the clinician to better recognize and treat
patients afflicted with encephalitis.
Presenting the latest in information and clinical care practices, Encephalitis:
Diagnosis and Treatment
- covers the history, epidemiology, diagnostics, and specific types of encephalitis
and their treatments including a description of the zoonotic nature of many illnesses
- discusses the most common infections that cause encephalitis, as well as rare forms
which including non-infectious disorders giving complete coverage of encephalitis
in one single-source practical reference
- provides detailed and up to date information from an international panel of experts
in the field for a global discussion of encephalitis
Contents Include:
Neuropathology of Encephalitis
PCR & Other Lab (serology, culture)
Critical Care Management
Encephalitis, Encephalopathy, and Epilepsy
Clinical Approach in Encephalitis
Viral Encephalitis: Background, Arboviruses, and Enteroviruses
West Nile
Tick Borne Encephalitis
Herpesvirus Encephalitis
Rabies
HIV Associated Brain Disease
Spirochetal Infections of the Nervous System
Encephalitis Due to Parasites
Neurobrucellosis
Listeria Infections and the Central Nervous System
Tuberculosis of the Central Nervous System
Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis
Paraneoplastic and Related Forms of Encephalitis
November 2007 / ISBN- 13: 9780849340314 / 360 pp. / 54 Illustrations / Price: £130
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Review by Dr Sally Stapley, Encephalitis Researcher
Department of Health Sciences, University of York, U.K
There is usually a certain caution, if not cynicism, when approaching a book deemed
to give “complete coverage” of a topic. Whether or not ‘Encephalitis:
Diagnosis and Treatment’ does provide “one single-source practical reference”
on this illness may be better judged perhaps by those who use it to inform patients’
clinical care. For those of us whose work involves hearing from individuals the
impact of post-encephalitic sequelae on their own and their families’ lives,
any effort to improve encephalitis management can only be viewed as commendable.
As its title suggests, this volume is primarily targeted at professionals working
in acute clinical care. (Neurological sequelae are also occasionally cited). Therefore,
within the volume’s eighteen chapters, there is an obvious focus on the following:
serologic and other diagnostic attributes of the illness; distinguishing encephalitis
from other encephalopathies (Chapter 17 on ADEM; and principally Chapter 1); and
crucially recommendations for treatment. The complexity of these issues is explicated
fully throughout, in particular Chapter 4 with regard to diagnostic methods and
Chapter 5 on critical care management.
For the general reader there are also comprehensive accounts of the varied worldwide
aetiology of the illness, its epidemiology and incidence. Indeed most causal agents
are described in this way, although perhaps certain forms of encephalitis, for example,
SSPE (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis) receive only cursory attention. Moreover,
in certain chapters, there are arguably fuller accounts of the causal agent (e.g.
the epidemiology of the specific virus) rather than how the encephalitis itself
can be treated. However, where such accounts occur, no doubt stressing public health
concerns was the impetus.
With regard to diagnosis and treatment, the treatment algorithm in the chapter on
herpesvirus encephalitis provides a useful clarification of the stages involved
in managing a confirmed or suspected case. Most other chapters also provide similar
guidance, although with some there is the danger that key diagnostic and treatment
information are perhaps a little ‘buried’ in the text. Better summarising
(and the inclusion of additional graphical representations) would have been especially
useful. Consequently the busy clinician may have to work quite hard to employ this
volume as a “practical reference”.
However, as a comprehensive ‘single-source reference’ on encephalitis,
broadly this book achieves its aims. Its authors provide up to date information
on the illness and identify areas where future developments in acute care are likely.
Importantly this book orientates a global audience to an increasingly global problem.
‘Encephalitis: Diagnosis and Treatment’ may become an indispensable
weapon in the armoury against this complex illness.
Encephalitis
By Ona Bloom and Jennifer Morgan
Book Review by Ava Easton
This book is a super little book which gives a broad, largely scientific overview
of Encephalitis and the pathways and mechanisms it makes use of to cause problems
in humans. It considers in different chapters, the following:
• An introduction to viral encephalitis
• The Molecular basis for viruses
• The Immune system and the effect of viruses upon it
• The Nervous System and viruses
• Diagnosis and Treatment of encephalitis
• Prevention of Encephalitis
• Scientific Research and the future of encephalitis
One word of caution in that the origins of the book are the US, and therefore there
is a focus on viral encephalitis and in particular viruses that are prevalent in
the US, such as West Nile. However if you are looking to understand how viruses
disrupt our immune system and breach our nervous system, then this is an interesting
read.
ISBN 0791085031
Awakenings
by Oliver Sacks
This is the extraordinary account of a group of 20 patients, survivors of the great
sleeping-sickness-epidemic which swept the world in the 1920s, and the astonishing,
explosive 'awakening', which effect they experienced 40 years later through a new
drug L-DOPA administered by Dr Sacks. The stories he tells of these remarkable individuals
are moving, often courageous and sometimes tragic. Through them he also explores
the most general questions of health, disease, suffering, care and the human condition.
Now hailed as a medical classic, Awakening was first published in 1973 and
won the Hawthornden Prize of that year. It has since inspired a TV documentary,
radio and stage plays, including Pinter's A Kind of Alaska, and a major feature
film.
ISDN 0 330 32091 2
via our Amazon link
Last modified: 3 October 2008