ABOUT INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Infectious disease physicians care for adult patients who have infectious diseases sufficiently severe or rare as to require expert knowledge. The specialty incorporates clinical, laboratory and public health aspects of infectious disease medicine and microbiology. Areas of training include HIV related disease and sexually transmitted diseases; general infectious diseases in hospitalised patients (including infections in surgical patients and those in intensive care); infections in patients immunosuppressed for transplantation or by cancer and its treatment; tropical, travel and geographic medicine; infection control; and immunisation. Other relevant areas include infection in pregnancy, antibiotic resistance, virology, mycology and parasitology.