AIDS and Tuberculosis: A Deadly Liaison

Co-infections of tuberculosis (TB) and AIDS have killed more than 5 million people worldwide, yet currently no vaccines are available for either of these diseases. This perfect storm of pandemics is analysed and explained for the first time in Aids and Tuberculosis: A Deadly Liaison edited by renowned experts Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c Stefan Kaufman and Prof. Dr Bruce Walker. 

Co-infection of these two diseases has flourished in the most impoverished regions of the world.  The AIDS pandemic which has exploded across Africa over the past two decades is now being met, by no coincidence, with a TB pandemic in the same regions.

While TB can be cured and AIDS can be treated, co-infection in a single patient presents unique challenges and the rapid expansion of these two pandemics has resulted in a critical need to better understand these interactions and to integrate research efforts.

This title brings together scientists from the forefront of research to explore and combine state-of-the-art studies in drug interactions and disease therapies, providing the latest information about prevention, therapy and diagnosis of both tuberculosis and AIDS.

This is the only book to place a clear emphasis on the increasing number of patients suffering from both tuberculosis and AIDS and is unique in combining expertise from both fields.  Through a multi-disciplinary approach the authors bring together the issues surrounding treatment of co-infection by highlighting the key areas of overlap and providing new data demonstrating exactly how this deadly liaison plays out.

Early chapters focus on immunology and the problems facing vaccination strategies for both diseases. Currently no vaccines exist for either disease and the coexistence of both in a single patient complicates the research for new preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic approaches.

Later chapters deal with some of the most threatening consequences of this deadly liaison, such as the emergence of drug resistant TB. These chapters also deal with the need to simultaneously treat both infections, presenting the major problem of drug interaction if two treatments research in isolation are given to one individual. 

Together the contributing authors offer a refreshingly new and engaging analysis of this most challenging of topics and offer new approaches by providing the comprehensive understanding of both diseases.

 This multi-disciplinary title will be of interest to a broad range of disciplines from microbiologists and virologists to bacteriologists, immunologists, pathophysiologists and those working in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological Industries.

Aids and Tuberculosis: A Deadly Liaison is the first title in Wiley-Blackwell’s new ‘Infection Biology Series.’ The second title in the series will be Bacterial Virulence: Basic Principles, Models and Global Approaches which will be edited by Philippe Sansonetti and is due for publication in February 2010.