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 to 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 Dennis L. StevensDennis L. StevensDr Dennis Stevens is an internationally-recognized authority on the pathogenesis and treatment of life-threatening toxin-mediated necrotizing soft tissue infections. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, USA and former Director of the recent NIH-funded Idaho Biomedical Research Collaborative on Emerging/Reemerging Infectious Diseases at the Boise VA Medical Center. He has published more than 160 original articles and 80 book chapters. His seminal 1989 New England Journal of Medicine report alerted physicians to the reemergence of severe group A streptococcal disease and invigorated research into its pathogenesis. His research unraveled key host-pathogen interactions that mediate this infection and provided scientific rationale for improved clinical management that includes inhibition of bacterial toxin production and/or activity. His group has investigated the roles of exotoxins in the pathogenesis of other necrotizing infections, such as those caused by Clostridium species and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Young investigators in his Center of Excellence now study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of adenovirus pathogenesis and host-pathogen interactions in diabetic wound infections. Dr Stevens authored an invited comprehensive review on Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2017. He is Chair of the Infectious Disease Society of America's (IDSA) Guidelines Committee for the Treatment of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections and received the IDSA's Society Citation in 2000 for his outstanding achievements in infectious diseases research, clinical investigation, and clinical practice. He was a key member of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's working group on severe streptococcal infections that established the consensus definition of Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome. He has contributed chapters on severe invasive infections to major medical textbooks, to the American Society for Microbiology's Manual of Clinical Microbiology, and to the electronic medical reference, UpToDate. He has also written several in-depth basic science monographs, including the NIH e-book Streptococcus pyogenes: Basic Biology to Clinical Manifestations, The Comprehensive Sourcebook of Bacterial Protein Toxins, and The Clostridia: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis. He is editor of Netter's Infectious Diseases, of Streptococcal Infections: Clinical Aspects, Microbiology, and Molecular Pathogenesis, volume editor for Essential Atlas of Infectious Diseases for Primary Care, and section editor for Current Opinion in Infectious Disease. Internationally, he gave an invited endowed lectureship to the Royal Society of Physicians in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has been Visiting Professor at more than 30 international institutions. In 2018, Dr Stevens received a Lifetime Achievement award from the VA Society of Practioners in Infectious Diseases for his contributions to clinical medicine, basic science research and teaching. Adarsh BhimrajAdarsh BhimrajDr Adarsh Bhimraj is the director, infectious diseases Fellowship and education at Houston Methodist Hospital. He was the head of the section of neurologic Infectious Diseases at Cleveland Clinic for 11 years. He was a panelist on IDSA's (Infectious Diseases Society of America) and NCS's (Neuro Critical care Society) guideline panel related to health care associated meningitis. He has authored book chapters on CNS infections in books like Mandell's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases and Greenberg's Neurosurgery. He was a speaker, panelist and moderator in several national and international conferences like ID Week (IDSA & sister society's annual conference), ECCMID (European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases), and ASM Microbe (American Society of Microbiology). In 2020 he received the Infectious Diseases Society of America citation Award. He was Associate Program director for the Internal Medicine residency program, at Cleveland Clinic, from 2011- 2015 and was the director for clinical reasoning. He was the principal director for the Cleveland Clinic Intensive Review of Internal Medicine for 10 years and won the Cleveland Clinic Internal Medicine house staff teacher of the year award twice. He was the IDSA chair for the annual conference ID Week 2022 and current chair for the IDSA COVID-19 rapid living guidelines. Rodrigo HasbunRodrigo HasbunRodrigo Hasbun, M.D., M.P.H., is Professor of Medicine; he obtained his medical degree at the Autonomous University of Central America in San Jose, Costa Rica, USA, in 1991. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, USA, in 1994 and then went to Yale University, USA, for five years for a fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Research by obtaining a National Research Service Award grant. During this time, he conducted studies in meningitis and endocarditis that have been incorporated into national guidelines. In 1999, he joined Tulane University in New Orleans, USA, where he obtained an MPH in Clinical Research and received an NIH K23 training grant to study adults with the aseptic meningoencephalitis syndrome. He joined the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in September 2008 and has validated and expanded his meningoencephalitis study to multiple centers and to the pediatric population. He has also been an investigator and co-investigator in multiple NIH-funded studies evaluating HIV associated neurocognitive disorders and West Nile virus encephalitis. Finally, Dr Hasbun is a panel member of the first healthcare associated ventriculitis and meningitis guidelines in 2016 and is the main author for the meningitis chapters in the main textbook of infectious diseases (Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases) and UpToDate.