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 Professor Monica SlavinProfessor Monica SlavinProfessor Monica Slavin leads the Immunocompromised Host Infection Service at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and is Head Department of Infectious Diseases at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She is Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne and Vice President of the International Immunocompromised Host Society. Monica is immediate past chair of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases Mycoses Interest Group (ANZMIG) and has chaired its antifungal guideline writing committee since 2004. She has led national studies of fungal infection epidemiology and new diagnostics for fungal infection in haematology patients in Australia. Professor Slavin received her medical degree from the University of Melbourne and trained in infectious diseases in Melbourne and in the Program in Infectious Diseases at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA. She has been an infectious diseases physician since 1993 with a major interest in infections in immunocompromised patients, especially those with cancer and undergoing stem cell transplantation. Her current research focus is prevention diagnosis and early treatment of invasive fungal infections in hematology patients. She has served on national steering committees for the development of antifungal and fever and neutropenia treatment guidelines and for the conduct of Australia-wide studies of the epidemiology of fungal infection. She is currently chair of the Australian & New Zealand Mycoses Interest Group and leads the writing group for Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) guidelines for the use of antifungal agents in the hematology and oncology setting. She is Vice-President of the International Immunocompromised Host Society. Professor Robert C. ReadProfessor Robert C. ReadRobert C. Read is the Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant Physician to Southampton University Hospitals since September 2012. He is Director of the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre. He undertook clinical and research training in Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, London, Nottingham and San Francisco. He previously served as an academic infectious disease physician at the University of Sheffield from 1995 and was Professor of Infectious Diseases there from 2002–2012. He has research interests in the pathogenesis and prevention of rapidly lethal infectious diseases and teaches clinical microbiology and infectious diseases to both undergraduates and postgraduates. He is author and co-author of >200 publications mainly in the field of infectious diseases. He is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), and a Fellow of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID). Robert is a member of the UK Joint Committee for Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI). He also chairs the postdoctoral awards panel for the NIHR Personal Training Fellowships scheme. Formerly he was chairman of the UK Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Specialty Group for the NIHR clinical research network from 2010–2015, chairman of the Scientific Affairs Committee and Executive member of ESCMID (2005–2012), and chair of the Program Committee of IDSA. In 2016 he was nominated by IDSA to give the Max Finland Annual Award Lecture.