Although respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been a high priority for vaccine development for over 50 years now, still no vaccine is available and none has yet demonstrated sufficient promise to move to licensure. The success of RSV immune prophylaxis and the availability of ever more powerful tools to study the immune response and pathogenesis of disease, combined with the ability to construct a wide variety of vaccines using different vaccine platforms, give us grounds to believe that an RSV vaccine is within reach. This book brings together in one source what is currently known about the virus: its clinical and epidemiologic features; the host response and pathogenesis of the disease; vaccines, vaccine platforms, and treatment; and animal and tissue culture models of RSV infection. It is designed to organize the critical information relevant to RSV vaccine development, facilitate the assimilation of data, and speed progress toward producing a safe and effective vaccine.

Prompting the first WHO global health alert for over a decade, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first recognised in South-East Asia in February 2003.

With the causative agent now identified as a new strain of coronavirus, the medical world has gained important knowledge on the aetiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, pathogenesis, epidemiology, disease treatment and infection control with amazing speed.

Despite this, major gaps remain in our understanding - the race is on to develop new cures and effective vaccines, and the long-term impact on health, society and economics are starting to unravel.

"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome: A Clinical Guide" meets the urgent need for a comprehensive, authoritative reference guide for everyone in the medical and scientific community engaged in the fight against SARS:
Definitive book on SARS, clearly and accurately documenting the extraordinary medical and scientific events around this new epidemic
International experts in the field, with many contributors from the WHO and CDC
Will help reader to understand and prevent future outbreaks with a repeat of the same consequences

Although respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been a high priority for vaccine development for over 50 years now, still no vaccine is available and none has yet demonstrated sufficient promise to move to licensure. The success of RSV immune prophylaxis and the availability of ever more powerful tools to study the immune response and pathogenesis of disease, combined with the ability to construct a wide variety of vaccines using different vaccine platforms, give us grounds to believe that an RSV vaccine is within reach. This book brings together in one source what is currently known about the virus: its clinical and epidemiologic features; the host response and pathogenesis of the disease; vaccines, vaccine platforms, and treatment; and animal and tissue culture models of RSV infection. It is designed to organize the critical information relevant to RSV vaccine development, facilitate the assimilation of data, and speed progress toward producing a safe and effective vaccine.