Pocket Guide to Fungal Infection is a concise guide that presents the major fungal infections in a synoptic manner which will assist in the diagnosis and management of disease. It includes over 30 descriptions of disease using consistently applied headings: definition; geographical distribution; causative organisms and their habitat; clinical manifestations; essential investigations; management. Text is in the form of bulleted paragraphs to make it easier to locate essential information. In the majority of cases each disease is covered in double page spreads with diagnostic illustrations on the left hand page. For more complex diseases four or six pages are used, but the structure of the text remains unchanged.
The book is divided into six sections that are colour coded to make it easier to find appropriate information. It is intended for those who encounter fungal infections as part of their every-day practice, including medical microbiologists, infectious disease specialists, dermatologists and general practitioners, who often encounter patients with itches and rashes resulting from fungal infection.
The book is written for a worldwide readership and includes diseases encountered in both the northern and southern hemispheres (e.g. paracoccidiodomycosis, Chromoblastomycosis, Mycetoma and Rhinosporodiosis are common in South America while Sporotrichosis is common in South East Asia). Having read the book and using it as a pocket reference the reader should be better equipped to diagnose the disease, request appropriate laboratory tests, interpret the results and ultimately manage the disease with the most effective therapies.
