Originally published in 1985 as Virology. Fields and Knipe (both, Harvard Medical School) and 88 contributors bring together basic and medical aspects of virology in a more comprehensive presentation than provided by general textbooks. This is a reference for medical and graduate students as well as scientists, physicians, and investigators interested in viruses as they are represented in the biological sciences. The general section on virus taxonomy, structure, biology, pathogenesis interferons, diagnosis, antiviral agents, and immunization occupies 500 pages. The second part describes the replication and biological and medical properties of the viruses. The information explosion in virology has required vast and broad revisions and inclusion of new chapters on virus evolution, latency and persistence, virus-cell interactions, and cell transformation; new sections on retroviruses including human retroviruses such as HIV and HTLV; hepadnaviruses. The main emphasis continues to be viruses of medical interest although other viruses have been described in specific cases where more is known about their mechanisms of replication. The Fields is the monograph of choice in general medical virology. An impressive piece of work. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR