Health protection professionals need rapid access to authoritative and easy-to-use information to ensure their actions are based on international best practice. This is precisely what the Communicable Disease Control and Health Protection Handbook does. This concise and practical handbook is an essential guide for all those who have responsibility for the identification and control of infectious disease. In the past five years, there have been many major changes in health protection practice, and significant scientific progress in the field, all of which are reflected in this new edition of the popular Communicable Disease Control and Health Protection Handbook . All chapters have been updated in line with recent changes in epidemiology, new guidelines for control and administrative changes. Basic principles of communicable disease control and health protection, major syndromes, control of individual infections, main services and activities, organizational arrangements for all EU countries and sources of further information are covered. A new chapter on pandemic planning has been included, and the influenza chapter has been expanded to cover seasonal, avian and pandemic flu.Communicable Disease Control and Health Protection Handbook is an indispensible companion for all those who are engaged in health protection, including public health physicians, epidemiologists, infection control nurses, microbiologists and trainees in the field.