This volume contains the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Rickettsiae and Rickettsial Diseases, in which an effort is made to address and clarify issues from clinical, diagnostic, epidemiologic, and molecular perspectives that have remained unsolved in the past. NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas. ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http://www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.

The only available reference to comprehensively discuss the common and unusual types of rickettsiosis in over twenty years, this book will offer the reader a full review on the bacteriology, transmission, and pathophysiology of these conditions. Written from experts in the field from Europe, USA, Africa, and Asia, specialists analyze specific patho

Rickettsial diseases, which include typhus, spotted fever, trench fever and Q fever, are very serious infectious diseases. Rickettsiae organisms also are of interest to researchers because they have been used as bioweapons, and can serve as agents for bioterrorism. In addition, they are biologically very successful organisms despite their relatively small genome. The papers in this volume are taken from the International Conference on Rickettsiae and Rickettsial Diseases, held in Ljubljana in 2002. They include state-of-the-art discussions of functional genomics, proteomics, epidemiology, ecology and clinical and diagnostic medicine.