Homegrown diseases | |
Australian arboviruses of medical importance: a handbook for general practitioners and other clinicians. Clement R Boughton. Melbourne: Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Services 1996 (67pp). |
The relevance to medicine of Australia's development as a continent and the evolution of its unique fauna is nowhere more evident than in relation to arboviruses and the diseases they cause. Many of these viruses have Australian marsupials and birds as hosts. Diseases caused by arboviruses are important because of the large numbers of people affected (as with Ross River virus) and the high rates of morbidity and mortality (as with Australian [formerly Murray Valley] encephalitis). Despite this importance, there is scant information regarding these infections in the standard textbooks. This is a reflection of the fact that most texts focus on diseases that are either prevalent globally or endemic to the country or region being written about. The publication of this small book by Professor Clem Boughton, a pre-eminent clinical authority on this group of diseases, is thus most welcome, and fills an important gap in the medical literature relevant to Australia. The book details arboviruses endemic to Australia and the main disease syndromes they cause, as well as arboviruses, such as dengue, that cause epidemics in Australia. In addition, it provides valuable references to the important, original publications relating to Australian arboviral disease. While the first section, covering the viruses and the diseases they cause, is excellent, the next section, which reviews arboviral disease in the different States, varies in quality, but does provide useful regional detail. The sections on laboratory virology and entomology are appropriately brief for a book that has clinicians as its target. A minor criticism is that some of the maps and figures were indecipherable through being too small or lacking in contrast. Justin T La Brooy
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