Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases was launched in 1988. It is part of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of infectious diseases is divided into 11 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Section Editors for this issue. Section Editors Joseph M. VinetzJoseph M. VinetzDr Vinetz graduated from Yale University and received his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Physician Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining the UCSD faculty in 2003, he was an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston and of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Center for Tropical Diseases at Galveston. His research focuses on tropical infectious diseases. His laboratory takes a comprehensive approach from laboratory bench to bedside, encompassing mechanistic molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology and cell biology approaches to the study of malaria transmission and leptospirosis, a disease transmitted from infected mammals (wild and domestic) to humans via infected urine. A key component of his research program is field work in the Peruvian Amazon city of Iquitos, where he maintains a state-of-the-art laboratory in collaboration with investigators from Peru and the United States. He is program director of a training program supported by the US National Institutes of Health, in partnership with the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru entitled ‘Endemic Infectious Diseases of the Peruvian Amazon’. His research is supported by grants from the United States Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health. Nicholas J. BeechingNicholas J. BeechingAfter undergraduate studies and clinical medical school in Oxford, UK, Nicholas Beeching qualified in 1977 and subsequently worked in training posts in Liverpool, Adelaide, Birmingham and Auckland. He was a consultant physician (with gastroenterology) in Khamis Mushayt, southern Saudi Arabia, for two years before taking up his current posts in Liverpool in 1987. He combines teaching and research activities as Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine with clinical and administrative duties as Lead Consultant, Tropical and Infectious Disease Unit, Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Among his clinical and research interests are parasitic infections of the bowel, salmonella infections, HIV, hepatitis and ‘emerging’ and imported diseases and zoonoses. He also has a strong interest in postgraduate medical education and has served as Chair of the Specialist Advisory Committee in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine and of the DTM&H examinations board of the Royal College of Physicians of London. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, numerous book chapters and five books, and has recently stepped down after a three year term as President of the British Infection Society. A. Clinton WhiteA. Clinton WhiteDr White completed his undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College and medical studies at Indiana University School of Medicine, USA. He qualified in internal medicine at the University of Washington and in infectious diseases at Yale University. He completed six months as a visiting scientist in Venezuela before coming to Texas in 1989. He currently directs the Infectious Disease Division, in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, USA. Among his clinical and research interests are host-parasite interactions for Cryptosporidium and other interstinal protozoa, clinical studies in cysticercosis, host responses controlling strongyloidiasis, opportunistic infections in HIV, and immunoregulation in HIV-TB co-infection. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications in addition to numerous book chapters. He is a past president of the clinical group and a councilor of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and serves on the examination committee for the ASMTH certificate of knowledge in tropical medicine and travel health.