Written by internationally respected experts, Handbook of Human Helminthiasis provides information essential in the development of an integrated approach to the prevention, control and treatment of disease caused by endoparasitic helminths. The text is divided into sections dealing with the main groups of helminth infections and the diseases they i

The detection and/or isolation and identification of pathogenic microorganisms is critical for the laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases. With growth-dependant methods providing reliable means for identifying pathogens, traditional culturing continues to play an integral role in the detection and characterization of known and "new" microbial pathogens. Microbiologists, therefore, rely on a variety of media for the detection, isolation, characterization, and identification of primary and opportunistic microbial pathogens. The Handbook of Media for Clinical and Public Health Microbiology provides a compilation of the formulations, methods of preparation, and applications for media used in clinical and public health microbiology laboratories. It is a significant update to the Handbook of Media for Clinical Microbiology, expanding the coverage to media used for public health epidemiological investigations of disease outbreaks and including media used for the detection of pathogens in foods and environmental samples. Comprising both classic and modern media, the handbook describes almost 1,800 types of media, listed alphabetically, including new media for the cultivation of emerging bacteria, fungi, and viruses that are causing major medical problems around the world. Examples of emerging pathogens are extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria, Escherichia coli O157:H7, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Many of the new media contain chromogenic or fluorogenic substrates that permit rapid detection of specific pathogens. The handbook’s format allows easy reference to information needed to prepare media for cultivating clinically relevant microorganisms. It also contains descriptions of expected results for organisms that are important for the examination of foods, water, and other specimens of public health significance as well as clinical specimens.

More than 2000 million people worldwide are affected by schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections and 155 000 deaths are reported each year. These infections are diseases associated with poverty, and in school-age populations in developing countries, intestinal helminth infections rank first among the causes of all communicable and noncommunicable diseases. This book describes a cost-effective approach to the control of these infections, based on the use of periodic parasitological surveys of school population samples. It is intended as a guide for health education managers responsible for implementing community-based programmes.

This manual focuses on how and when a set of low-cost or free drugs should be used in developing countries to control a set of diseases caused by worm infections. Preventive chemotherapy in this context means using drugs that are effective against a broad range of worm infections to simultaneously treat the four most common diseases caused by worms: river blindness (onchocerciasis), elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis), schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Significant opportunities also exist to integrate these efforts with the prevention and control of diseases such as trachoma. The new approach provides a critical first step in combining treatment regimens for diseases which, although different in themselves, require common resources and delivery strategies for control or elimination.

Zoonotic diseases constitute a public health problem throughout the world. Addressing a little studied area of veterinary and medical science, this book covers the viruses, bacteria and protozoan and helminth parasites that are transmitted between man and dogs, discussing population management, control disease agents and human-dog relationships. Fully updated throughout, this new edition also includes two new chapters on benefits of the human-dog relationship and non-infectious disease issues with dogs. It is a valuable resource for researchers and students of veterinary and human medicine, microbiology, parasitology and public health.

This is the second edition of the WHO handbook on the safe, sustainable and affordable management of health-care waste--commonly known as "the Blue Book". The original Blue Book was a comprehensive publication used widely in health-care centers and government agencies to assist in the adoption of national guidance. It also provided support to committed medical directors and managers to make improvements and presented practical information on waste-management techniques for medical staff and waste workers. It has been more than ten years since the first edition of the Blue Book. During the intervening period, the requirements on generators of health-care wastes have evolved and new methods have become available. Consequently, WHO recognized that it was an appropriate time to update the original text. The purpose of the second edition is to expand and update the practical information in the original Blue Book. The new Blue Book is designed to continue to be a source of impartial health-care information and guidance on safe waste-management practices. The editors' intention has been to keep the best of the original publication and supplement it with the latest relevant information. The audience for the Blue Book has expanded. Initially, the publication was intended for those directly involved in the creation and handling of health-care wastes: medical staff, health-care facility directors, ancillary health workers, infection-control officers and waste workers. This is no longer the situation. A wider range of people and organizations now have an active interest in the safe management of health-care wastes: regulators, policy-makers, development organizations, voluntary groups, environmental bodies, environmental health practitioners, advisers, researchers and students. They should also find the new Blue Book of benefit to their activities. Chapters 2 and 3 explain the various types of waste produced from health-care facilities, their typical characteristics and the hazards these wastes pose to patients, staff and the general environment. Chapters 4 and 5 introduce the guiding regulatory principles for developing local or national approaches to tackling health-care waste management and transposing these into practical plans for regions and individual health-care facilities. Specific methods and technologies are described for waste minimization, segregation and treatment of health-care wastes in Chapters 6, 7 and 8. These chapters introduce the basic features of each technology and the operational and environmental characteristics required to be achieved, followed by information on the potential advantages and disadvantages of each system. To reflect concerns about the difficulties of handling health-care wastewaters, Chapter 9 is an expanded chapter with new guidance on the various sources of wastewater and wastewater treatment options for places not connected to central sewerage systems. Further chapters address issues on economics (Chapter 10), occupational safety (Chapter 11), hygiene and infection control (Chapter 12), and staff training and public awareness (Chapter 13). A wider range of information has been incorporated into this edition of the Blue Book, with the addition of two new chapters on health-care waste management in emergencies (Chapter 14) and an overview of the emerging issues of pandemics, drug-resistant pathogens, climate change and technology advances in medical techniques that will have to be accommodated by health-care waste systems in the future (Chapter 15).