Description

I am a big fan of the At a Glance series. Most of my revision for final MBBS Therapeutics was done using Pharmacology at a Glance, and I know I was not the only one. Medical Microbiology and Infection at a Glance is a more recent edition to the series, first published in 2000, and sadly was not available to me when I was a medical student – if it had been, it may have made revising for Pathology and Medicine a little easier too.

The series of books have a familiar, easy to navigate layout, with clear sketches and f low diagrams on one page containing a deceptively large amount of information, and text on the facing page, providing further detail. Medical Microbiology and Infection at a Glance is divided up into 2 main sections – the human pathogens, including chapters on bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi, and the infectious syndromes.

There is a chapter devoted to most major bacterial pathogens, or groups of pathogens. Some organisms command more space than others, for example, Staphylococci have a chapter to themselves, whereas the enteric gram-negative bacteria have to share a chapter. The Enterococci only get 7 lines.
This is inevitable in a book of this size however and generally the most commonly encountered pathogens are well represented. Each chapter aims to cover pathogenesis, clinical features, laboratory diagnosis, treatment and if appropriate, prevention and control. The diagrams act as an aide memoir, although some of them are quite fussy and require a little concentration. The introduction of some colour might help. The viral and fungal chapters follow a similar vein. There are also 4 nice chapters on parasitology, which can be a bit of nightmare to remember as a medical student. Given the huge burden of disease it causes, and the confusion that the colonisation vs. resistance scenario appears to generate among junior doctors, it would have been nice to see a little more explanation on MRSA, including it’s resistance mechanisms. A brief explanation of the mec A gene and also the van genes in VRE might be useful for junior doctors, especially microbiology SHOs.

The second section is about systemic infection – it is a brief overview only, but it gives a f lavour of the many different diseases, which infectious agents can cause. In particular the chapters on congenital and perinatal infection, central nervous system disease and infection in immunocompromised patients were useful. The diagrams in this section were simpler, and often included anatomical pictures to help place the infection.Unfortunately there were some printing errors in the copy sent to me for review – 4 chapters were missing the first page of text, which when you consider the chapters only consist of 2 pages, was quite significant. I liked the full colour case studies supplied at the end of the book, but would have preferred more photographs throughout the book as well.

The beauty of these books is the size. When you are faced with an exam, the last thing you need is a textbook where you can’t see the wood for the trees. You just need the facts, plain, simple, easy to locate and without too much waff le. These are excellent introductory books that you can pick up and read cover to cover in a couple of hours. They are not definitive texts, (and they don’t claim to be), but if you can retain and understand most of what is presented to you in an At a Glance book, you will know a surprising amount. It is better to know a little about most things than have a detailed knowledge of some subjects and gaping holes elsewhere.

The authors state that the book is written for medical students and doctors looking for a brief overview of microbiology and infectious diseases, and the pitch is about right. I would certainly recommend the book to medical students, particularly final year students, and junior and senior house officers, especially those starting a microbiology attachment, will also find it useful.