Abstract
Infectious Disease is a clinical speciality which crosses the boundaries of all other medical disciplines. Hippocrates and Galen were able to diagnose typhoid and malaria by the characteristic pattern of their fevers. Most infectious and inflammatory conditions however do not have such diagnostic clinical features. The accurate localisation and characterisation of inflammation and infection has emerged as one of the greatest challenges of modern medicine. This challenge is increased by the advent of large numbers of patients with profound immunosuppression, either due to AIDS or iatrogenically during chemotherapy. Immunosuppressed patients may have severe infection without exhibiting any of the classical signs and symptoms. Furthermore the introduction of an ever increasing range of invasive procedures has led to a greater incidence and diversity of infective sequelae.
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Baker, R., Zumla, A., Peters, B.S. (1998). Infection in Hospitals. In: Cox, P.H., Buscombe, J.R. (eds) The Imaging of Infection and Inflammation. Developments in Nuclear Medicine, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4990-7_1
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