Reviewer:Archana NMI Chatterjee, MD PhD(Creighton University) Description:This is the authoritative reference for pediatric infectious diseases. The previous edition was published in 2003. Purpose:The purpose is to provide practitioners with the most current and accurate information available on pediatric infectious diseases. This book is much needed and used extensively by all pediatric infectious disease specialists and most pediatricians as well as other primary care practitioners. The book definitely meets the authors' objectives. Audience:Written primarily for practitioners, particularly in the fields of pediatric infectious disease and pediatrics, the book is also a valuable reference for other primary care practitioners, students and residents. The authors are eminent pediatric infectious disease specialists. Features:The book presents a composite summary of current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding infectious diseases in and immunizations for infants, children, and adolescents. The first of the five sections deals with active and passive immunization; section 2 provides recommendations for care of children in special circumstances involving infectious diseases; section 3 presents concise summaries of infectious diseases in alphabetical order; section 4 describes antimicrobial agents and related therapy; and section 5 offers recommendations on antimicrobial prophylaxis. Since this book is revised every 3 years or so, many readers are familiar with its contents; for such readers, a convenient summary of major changes in the current book is provided. There are 10 appendixes thatoffer additional information. This book contains no illustrations, but its online version (available at www.aapredbook.org does. The major shortcoming is that references are not provided for most of the chapters. However, since this is viewed as an authoritative resource, citing this book is generally considered sufficient literature support. Assessment:Th