Because aging is accompanied by a steady decline in resistance to infectious diseases, the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases in the elderly is not only much more complex, but also often quite different from that for younger patients.

In the second edition of Infectious Disease in the Aging: A Clinical Handbook, a panel of well known and highly experienced geriatric physicians and infectious disease experts review the most important common infections affecting the elderly and delineate their well-proven diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive techniques. Among the illnesses discussed are urinary tract infections, pneumonia, ocular infections, tuberculosis, and fungal and viral infections. In addition, there are detailed discussions of sepsis, infective endocarditis, intraabdominal infections, bacterial meningitis, osteomyelitis and septic arthritis, and prosthetic device infections.