Manson’s Tropical Diseases, 24th Edition

By: Jeremy Farrar, FRCP, FMedAcSci, DPhil, OBE; Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, FAAP, FASTMH; Thomas Junghanss, MD, MSc, PhD(c) (Lon); Gagandeep Kang, MD, PhD, FRCPath, FASc, FAAM; David Lalloo, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FFTM, RCPS(Glasg); Nicholas J. White, OBE, MD, DSc, FRCP, FMedSci, FRS

ISBN: 9780702079597

Publication Date: October 19, 2023

Reviewer: Farrin Alan Manian, MD, MPH (Mercy Hospital St. Louis)

Description

This book covers various aspects of a broad range of diseases seen in the tropics, including their epidemiology, diagnosis and management. In addition to the traditional communicable diseases associated with the tropics, the book covers many common non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, vascular, and oral diseases. The book is edited and authored by scores of experts in the field of tropical diseases. The current edition updates the previous edition, published in 2014, with newly covered topics, such as Covid-19 and 21st century drivers of tropical medicine.

Purpose

The book has long been regarded as the most comprehensive reference textbook in tropical diseases. The current edition aims to maintain this distinction by successfully recognizing the ever-evolving nature of acute and chronic conditions that affect millions of people living in the tropics. The book’s dedication of an entire section to increasingly important factors that can adversely impact the health of the population, such as poverty, conflict and political instability, and climate change, is particularly timely.

Audience

This book serves as a comprehensive resource for physicians involved in the care of people who have tropical diseases or will be traveling to tropical areas. Given the breadth and depth of the topics covered, however, it should also be of interest to healthcare professionals who aim to gain a more in-depth understanding of diseases afflicting those in the tropics.

Features

This book is offered in both print and online versions. It contains 15 sections, 84 chapters and 5 appendices covering “traditional” tropical diseases, such as those caused by protozoal and helminthic infections, as well as less traditional topics such as ethics and tropical diseases and obesity in the tropics. Each chapter begins with a listing of key points, with ample figures, tables, and boxes to facilitate retrieval of key information. Limited selected references are frequently listed at the end of each chapter in the print version, while the website provides a full list. Five appendices near the end of the book conveniently cover practical topics such as clinical laboratory diagnosis and sources of information in tropical medicine.

Website Features

The accompanying website is easily accessible and navigable. It conveniently offers hyperlinks to referenced journals. However, multiple attempts at printing selected pages were unsuccessful.

Assessment

The arrival of an updated edition of a book that has long been considered one of the most authoritative resources in tropical medicine has been much anticipated given the myriad social and scientific changes the world has witnessed in the past decade. The book will aid with a fuller understanding of traditional tropical diseases and will also remind that the field of tropical medicine spans beyond the traditional study of exotic diseases. Discussion of factors that improve understanding of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity in the tropics is particularly illuminating. Few shortcomings of the book are noteworthy. As with any traditional textbook, some of the material presented may be outdated by the time the book is published. For example, the chapter on Covid-19 did not list any references beyond 2022, and another chapter on viral hepatitis cited no publications beyond 2020 and seemed to overlook a landmark March 2020 New England Journal of Medicine article on the extraordinarily successful campaign in Egypt to screen and treat millions of people with hepatitis C infection. There was also some inconsistency in how the references were provided in the print version with some chapters citing several references in numerical order, while others cited selected references in no particular order, or offered none at all. Nevertheless, the latest edition of this time-honored textbook is a much-needed addition to the library of anyone dedicated to in-depth understanding of ever-evolving diseases of the tropics.

©Doody’s Review Service, 2024, Farrin Alan Manian, MD, MPH (Mercy Hospital St. Louis), Doody’s Score: 92 – 4 Stars!

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