Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers is acompact and highly readable mono-graph written by Collin Howard, anauthoritative and veteran virologistwith hands-on practical experience inthis field. This volume is highly satis-fying on a variety of levels. Self-con-tained chapters deal with each of the 4taxonomic viral families (Flavivi-ridae, Arenaviridae, Bunyaviridae,and Filoviridae), which make up thecategory of viral hemorrhagic feveragents. The properties of each virusfamily are presented in terms ofmolecular virology and replicationstrategy, followed by the epidemiolo-gy, clinical presentation, and treat-ment options. Cross-referencing toother chapters is kept to a minimum,enhancing the readability of the text.The information is reasonably current,with the exception of the currentMarburg outbreak in Angola. For eachvirus, the author offers his candidassessment of the available treatmentoptions. My only quibble is that I donot share his pessimism that effectivevaccines will not be developed anddistributed in the near future. The author made a conscious deci-sion to avoid encyclopedic referenc-ing to enhance readability. On occa-sion, this results in bold statementsthat the specialist might wish hadbeen referenced. One example is thediscussion of Whitewater Arroyovirus and its probable (but con-tentious) role in 3 fatal cases of hem-orrhagic fever from 1999 to 2000.Another is a statement that infectionof endothelial cells is a critical eventin the pathogenesis of Ebola virus,which, to my knowledge, has neverbeen adequately documented. The text is enhanced by electronmicrographs of representative agents,photographs of rodent reservoirs intheir native habitat, maps of geo-graphic distributions, and schematicrepresentations of genome organiza-tion and replication strategies. Thelegend to Figure 2 in the Filoviruschapter compares Marburg and Ebolaviruses, but only 1 image (which Irecognize to be Marburg) is dis-played
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