I suspect that anyone who has treated a patient with full-blown cholera develops a deep respect for a really remarkable pathogen, and that is certainly true for me. The first patient I treated, almost two decades ago, received 43 litres of saline and looked well on it (well, relatively), so I have always been interested in this extraordinary disease. Vibrio cholerae is a very successful pathogen from every point of view, so this book grabbed my attention right away. The book sets out to describe the molecular pathways which confer on V cholerae its remarkable success, and it may interest not just microbiologists but anyone interested in the interactions of host and pathogen, and indeed anyone with a desire to learn more about the current state of the art in understanding infectious disease.

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