Instilling good prescribing habits in young doctors is essential for the benefit of patients and to preserve the value of the antibiotic revolution that altered medical practice in the second half of the twentieth century. These concerns underlie the approach taken in the new edition of this successful book. The text provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the principles of antimicrobial chemotherapy as an aid to informed, rational prescribing. Care is taken to address all aspects of antimicrobial drug use, including those specific to developed and developing countries of the world. The authors are international experts with a long standing interest in the role of education as a means of promoting an understanding of the benefits and limitations of antimicrobial chemotherapy in physicians, surgeons and other health care workers. The book offers a structured approach to the subject in four themed sections, each of several chapters. A historical introduction is followed by a section outlining the basic properties of antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic and antiviral (including antiretroviral) drugs. The next section explains the various facets of antimicrobial drug resistance - which threatens to undermine the continued efficacy of antimicrobial agents - and effective ways of countering the threat. Therapeutic use is covered in two sections: one introduces readers to the general principles that inform the rational prescribing of antimicrobial drugs; the second deals with practicalities of the use of antimicrobial agents in specific clinical conditions. The book ends with a description of the ways in which drugs are developed and marketed. There are extensive recommendations for further reading.