Deriving from Pratt's Fundamentals of Chemotherapy (OUP, 1973), Chemotherapy of Infection (OUP, 1977), and The Antimicrobial Drugs (OUP, 1986), this superb text surveys the drugs used to treat bacterial, fungal, parasitic and viral infections. It describes in comprehensive detail the mechanisms for both the antimicrobial actions and the adverse clinical effects of the these drugs. No other book provides such a thorough yet readily accessible discussion of how the body handles antibiotics.For this edition Eric Scholar has joined Dr Pratt as co-author, and the entire text has been updated. Two completely new chapters on the quinolones and antiretroviral agents have been added. With over 3500 references and numerous charts and tables summarizing each drug's pharmacokinetic properties as well as microbial susceptibility, this is an invaluable resource for graduate students in pharmacology and microbiology, medical students, pharmacy students, infectious disease specialists, clinical pharmacists, and clinicl microbiologists.