Medical Microbiology

AbstractInfectious diseases can affect the previously healthy adolescent as well as severely immuno‐compromised intensive care unit patients. The effects may be merely annoying, but in many cases they can become life‐threatening. The immediate impact of infectious diseases on everyday life can be seen with Helicobacter pylori, which infects more than 50% of the global population, or Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes a major tick‐borne disease in Europe and America. On the other hand, in less‐developed countries, infections causing diarrhea are still among the most important causes of death – especially in children. Research in Medical Microbiology ranges from attempts to better understand the physiology and ecology of the causative agents to epidemiological typing of clinical isolates. It covers the mutual interactions of pathogenic microbes as well as the interplay between microorganism and host. Among the most pressing problems in medical microbiology is the emerging of antibiotic resistances. In recent years, both Gram‐positive bacteria – with the first description of vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus – as well as Gram‐negative species – e.g. with the emergence of exte