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Monday 21 January 2008

S320: Book 1 - Pathogens and People

Well book one is all quite general. There is a reasonable amount in it although its only 88 pages long. You only get two weeks to read it following the course schedule.

It's at this point that you also have to go through the Malaria CD. There is a lot of information in the CD, and I'm not really sure how much I need to know. We covered Malaria in quite some detail in S204, so there isn't a lot new to me - at one point I could recite most of the parasite life stages and forms.

The first chapter is a general introduction to the topic, and makes for interesting reading.

The next is a case study on influenza and looks at various aspects including its habit of reoccurring in new and more virulent forms every so often, and even touches on the H5N1 bird flu variant.

Chapter 3 is very short as its about Malaria, and just directs you to the CD.

Finally chapter 4 is all about hospital acquired diseases. Things like MRSA and so on are introduced here and how hospitals are a hot bed of infection, although compared to even a hundred years ago things have improved immeasurably. In those days you were lucky ever to come out of a hospital.

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