Image quality matters

Abstract

Parasites and Human Disease CD-ROMedited by T. Winstanley, T. Clark andS. Green, DiaSys Europe, 2000 (£90.00).The CD-ROM atlas Parasites and Human Disease is part of an educational pack, which includes an A to Z guide to parasitology, a set of parasite reference cards, trichrome-stained slides of various protozoa, and vials containing helminth-ova suspensions. All this represents a commendable effort to provide training and reference material for microbiology technicians, which appears to be unique of its kind on the market.The CD deals with 60 species of parasites listed in a scrolling directory. For each species selected, a brief statement appears in a four-line scrolling text box and is illustrated by a picture. Such a presentation could have produced a lively set of annotated images, but in most cases the result is disappointing – spoiled by poor quality images. Digitalizing images is a skill, and unfortunately, the producers of this CD considered that this skill was not worth acquiring. Despite the poor quality of the images, the authors might still have produced something of value if they had limited themselves to what this CD Atlas was supposed to be about: the identification of parasites in a microbiology laboratory. Instead, they have tried to cover clinical features, epidemiology, treatment and control and, in this, they failed completely. Having very little to say and not providing appropriate clinical images to illustrate their statements often produces bizarre results: the clinical features of Loa loa show a Chrysops, severe malaria is illustrated by an electronmicrograph of a Plasmodium vivax mitochondria. Insufficient images to illustrate vectors meant that the same image of a mosquito had to be used in one frame to illustrate a statement about Anopheles, in another to show Culex quinquefasciatus, in a third to illustrate tropical eosinophilia (?).By contrast, the Wellcome Trust have set a high standard for interactive CD-ROMs in parasitology [Topics in International Health (TIH) series] and any new commercial package will, from now on, need to be at least as good. Despite a few redeeming features (the identification keys of helminth ovas or amoebic cysts are well done and the quizzes are excellent), the Intersep CD-ROM Atlas is far from the TIH standard and is not, in its present state, a worthwhile investment.