This book provides a timely and comprehensive review of current knowledge of all paramyxoviruses and is written by renowned scientists who have made seminal contributions in their respective paramyxovirus fields of expertise. Topics include: mumps virus, simian virus 5, parainfluenza viruses, Newcastle disease and related avian paramyxoviruses, Sendai virus, Hendra virus, Nipah virus, measles virus, canine distemper virus, rinderpest virus, peste des petits ruminants virus, human respiratory syncytial virus, metapneumoviruses, and new and emerging paramyxoviruses. Each chapter covers our curre.

Fenner and White's Medical Virology, Fifth Edition provides an integrated view of related sciences, from cell biology, to medical epidemiology and human social behavior. The perspective represented by this book, that of medical virology as an infectious disease science, is meant to provide a starting point, an anchor, for those who must relate the subject to clinical practice, public health practice, scholarly research, and other endeavors. The book presents detailed exposition on the properties of viruses, how viruses replicate, and how viruses cause disease. These chapters are then followed by an overview of the principles of diagnosis, epidemiology, and how virus infections can be controlled. The first section concludes with a discussion on emergence and attempts to predict the next major public health challenges. These form a guide for delving into the specific diseases of interest to the reader as described in Part II. This lucid and concise, yet comprehensive, text is admirably suited to the needs of not only advanced students of science and medicine, but also postgraduate students, teachers, and research workers in all areas of virology. - Features updated and expanded coverage of pathogenesis and immunity - Contains the latest laboratory diagnostic methods - Provides insights into clinical features of human viral disease, vaccines, chemotherapy, epidemiology, and control

The knowledge and practice of clinical virology continues to expand. This new fifth edition has thirty-six comprehensive chapters, each of which has been extensively revised or rewritten, with the addition of new colour plates. This updated version takes into account knowledge accumulated in molecular biology with its applications for laboratory diagnosis, immunisation and antiviral chemotherapy. Each chapter highlights the clinical features and epidemiological patterns of infection. Similarly, in response to the global concern of the threat posed by new viruses, a new chapter on Emerging Infections is included. There is also new material on Hospital Acquired Infections, including some advice relating to SARS, that will be of benefit to those dealing with the day-to-day management of patients in hospital.

What justifies the size of this compendium of reviews on the paramyxoviruses? As intracellular parasites that reproduce with almost complete indifference to nuclear activities, paramyxoviruses have not been providing insights about genes that regulate cellular activities and development, topics that account for much of the excitement in modem biology. For contributions of virus research to those topics, we must look to the retroviruses, which have the propensity to steal developmentally important genes and subvert them to malignant pur poses, and to the nuclear DNA viruses, whose gene expression depends heavily upon cellular transcription machinery, making them exceptionally useful tools for identifying and characterizing components of that machinery. From this perspective, it may appear that purely lytic viruses like the paramyxoviruses are sitting on the sidelines of contemporary biology. But there is plenty of action on the sidelines. Paramyxoviruses remain unconquered, devastating agents of disease. Human deaths attributable to paramyxoviruses worldwide, especially in children, are numbered in the mil lions annually. There are many pathogenic paramyxoviruses and too few effec tive vaccines, and those vaccines (against measles and mumps) are affordable only by relatively affluent nations. Moreover, the paramyxoviruses are intrin sically interesting organisms, presenting the challenge of understanding the self-replication of RNA and many other challenges peculiar to the structures and functions of their proteins, not only as individual entities, but also as they act in concert during virus reproduction and interact with vital functions of the cells they infect and often (but not always) destroy.

Measles virus, one of the most contagious of all human viruses, has been largely contained by the development and use of a vaccine that was introduced 50 years ago. These two volumes were timed to honor the introduction of the vaccine and to record the enormous advancements made in understanding the molecular and cell biology, pathogenesis, and control of this infectious disease. Where vaccine has been effectively delivered, endemic measles virus transmission has been eliminated. However, difficulties in vaccine delivery, lack of health care support and objection to vaccination in some communities continue to result in nearly 40 million cases and over 300,000 deaths per year from measles.

Approximately 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses, and the rate of emergence of zoonotic diseases is on the rise. Bats are being increasingly recognised as an important reservoir of zoonotic viruses of different families, including SARS coronavirus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus and Ebola virus. Understanding bats’ role in emerging zoonotic diseases is crucial to this rapidly expanding area of research. Bats and Viruses: A New Frontier of Emerging Infectious Diseases provides an updated overview of research focusing on bat biology and the role bats play as hosts of many major zoonotic viruses. The text covers bat biology, immunology, and genomics. Chapters also delve into the various major bat-borne virus families, including lyssaviruses, paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses, filoviruses and reoviruses, among others. Edited by leaders in the field, Bats and Viruses: A New Frontier of Emerging Infectious Diseases is a timely, invaluable reference for bat researchers studying microbiology, virology and immunology, as well as infectious disease workers and epidemiologists, among others.

This book will give an overview on viruses undergoing proteolytic activation through host proteases. The chapters will be organized in three themed parts, the first part describing respective viruses and their characteristics in detail. In the second part the molecular and cellular biology of the proteases involved as well as their physiological functions will be further explored. The third part will contain a chapter on protease inhibitors that are promising tools for antiviral therapy. This book will engage scholars in virology and medical microbiology as well as researchers with an interest in enzymology and protein structure and function relationship.