Infectious diseases constitute a major portion of illnesses worldwide, and microbiology is a main pillar of clinical infectious disease practice. Knowledge of viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites is integral to practice in clinical infectious disease.

Practical Medical Microbiology is an invaluable reference for medical microbiology instructors. Drs. Berkowitz and Jerris are experienced teachers in the fields of infectious diseases and microbiology respectively, and provide expert insight into microorganisms that affect patients, how organisms are related to each other, and how they are isolated and identified in the microbiology laboratory. The text also is designed to provide clinicians the knowledge they need to facilitate communication with the microbiologist in their laboratory.

The text takes a systematic approach to medical microbiology, describing taxonomy of human pathogens and consideration of organisms within specific taxonomic groups. The text tackles main clinical infections caused by different organisms, and supplements these descriptions with clinical case studies, in order to demonstrate the effects of various organisms.