This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
Like its predecessors, the 1965 edition of Progress in Medical Virology covers a lot of virological ground, much of it of fundamental importance. Clinicians, especially pediatricians, will do well to read the section on viruses and mycoplasma that cause respiratory disease in man. The chapters on adenoviruses and picornaviruses also bring us up to date on the relationship of these agents to human illness. About 12 years ago there were less than half a dozen viruses known to cause acute respiratory disease in man. Today there are well over a hundred. Despite these recent discoveries, the etiology of about half the respiratory illnesses remains unknown. Although these factors present a tough roadblock to the prevention of acute respiratory disease by immunization, they are not the only obstacles. This books points out that the presence of circulating neutralizing antibody in a person convalescent from measles or poliomyelitis is associated with immunity