Author Description

There is an increasing number of immunocompromised patients across a widening range of specialities in medicine. Patients with underlying malignancy, as well as transplant patients, are now living longer in a vulnerable immune state. Previously, patients were only seen by small specialist transplant, haematology, or oncology teams. Modern techniques mean that patients undergoing care in many specialities such as dermatology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, and acute general medicine, are being immunosuppressed to modify their underlying disease, and treated directly by their own specialists. The most pressing problems that these patients suffer from are usually related to fever and infection. The Oxford Specialist Handbook of Infection in the Immunocompromised Host is a comprehensive guide for medical staff caring for immunocompromised patients in a hospital setting. Divided into three sections, it is the ideal source for clear, up-to-date information needed on the ward. The book starts with a background of the field, followed by a section that provides a 'host', or patient-centred, approach to presentations in different immunocompromised states. It discusses the assessment, investigation, and management of clinical syndromes in patients with primary immunodeficiency, HIV infection, immunodeficiency as a result of therapeutic immunosuppression, haematological and solid organ malignancy, and immunodeficiency related to organ transplant. In addition, it covers medical conditions resulting in defective immunity, such as diabetes, mellitus, and chronic renal failure, and provides information on travel in the immunocompromised host. The third section provides a pathogen-centred approach to the investigation and management of viral, bacterial, parasitic, and fungal infections of particular relevance to the immunocompromised host. Combining hospital and laboratory guidelines with recent research, the Oxford Specialist Handbook of Infection in the Immunocompromised Host highlights the importance of diagnoses and empirical treatments. Ideal for medical staff working in infectious diseases, ITU, haematology and oncology, transplants, HIV/GUM, rheumatology, and general medicine, it also considers the diagnostic dilemmas encountered in a clinical setting. This handbook is also a valuable resource for when preparing for the UK SCE examinations in these topics, and the MRCP.