The Topics in International Health series (TIH) is designed for use as an educational resource in tropical and international health. This CD on Malaria (Fig.1) is aimed at medical and life sciences students, their teachers, healthcare professionals, academics, and researchers.

Other CD titles from TIH include Trachoma, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Leprosy, Schistosomiasis, Leishmaniasis, Sickle Cell Disease, Diarrhoeal Diseases, Nutrition, and Acute Respiratory Infection.

The CD is easy to install, the interface is intuitive and very simple to use, the comprehensive help in one screen shows the functioning of each navigation tools.

Malaria CD is an Interactive Tutorials for self-learning, The Image Collection is a searchable database of many hundreds of photographs, and a Glossary which is an electronic index of medical and scientific terms used in the Malaria 2nd Edition Tutorials and Image Collection.

The topics in Malaria 2nd Edition CD-ROM covers almost all aspects of malaria for UG PG General Physician and Public Health Professionals. The tutorial is very well organised for the contents of the topics covered, which are divided in to thirteen subtopics which includes are Malaria Overview, Parasite Biology, Vector Biology, Epidemiology, Immunity, Malaria Control, Rollback Malaria, Pathogenesis, Diagnostic tests, Diagnosis and treatment in Children, Pregnancy, and Adults. There is also an interactive test quiz with explanatory answers and topic summary at the end of each subtopic.

Figure 2: A searchable database in this CD contains hundreds of such photographs

In all there are 13 interactive tutorials covering all the important aspects of malaria in depth. These are (i) vector biology (new addition in this version) (ii) Roll Back Malaria (new addition in this version) (iii) pathogenesis (new addition in this version) (iv) overview (v) parasite biology (vi) epidemiology (vii) immunity (viii) control (ix) diagnostic tests (x) diagnosis in children (xi) treatment in children (xii) malaria in pregnancy, and finally (xiii) diagnosis and treatment in adults.

The lessons come complete with a comprehensive glossary, arranged neatly from A to Z. Any term can be easily searched through this neat little device. If for instance, you click on the term DDT you get a pop up box giving the details of the term. In addition to the glossary you can also find a term and its occurrence anywhere in the database of this CD and its location in the tutorial, for example the term "Coma" gives list of occurrences, you can click on any location to get detail. The Image collection file has more than 600 pictures/diagrammes relating to malaria not only from laboratory but from field situations as well. A notepad helps in taking notes while browsing the tutorial.

Several themes in this CD have been reworked and updated. These include "molecular research in parasite biology", "Plasmodium genomics", "rapid diagnostic ('dipstick' tests)", "latest (Word Health Organization, 2000) treatment guidelines", "new drugs in development, "drug resistance", "clinical epidemiology", "immunology and vaccines", "insecticide treated mosquito nets", "techniques in mosquito biology", "Anopheles life cycle", "geographical information systems", "new initiatives in control".

The CD has an amazingly large number of images - approximately 850 - covering a vast range of topics. These include "epidemiology - vectors", data on breeding sites", "prevention and control", "pathology", "clinical features", "microscopy", "treatment", "parasite biology", and "diagnosis and investigation".

The contents of the CD have been provided and reviewed by experts in the field of malaria from all over the world including experts from developing world. This CD comes with high-resolution graphics, flow diagrammes, charts, and many pictures, it also has four video clips showing biting mosquito, hatching larvae, and Convulsions.

The CD contains some interesting animations too, which make the task of learning more enjoyable. These animations seem to add an extra dimension to the learning process.

On the whole it is a good addition to any doctor's multimedia collection and for demonstrating and health education to patients/ patients attendants, will definitely appeal to person in medical profession and others interested in the subject.

System requirements

-G.S.Meena Dr Gajendra Singh Meena was born on 25th December 1955 at pink city Jaipur in Rajasthan, India. He did his first twelve years of studies at Jaipur and medical graduation as well as post-graduation both from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMSONIAN, 1974 Batch). He has worked at AIIMS in ICMR Project, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi Dr. S.N. Medical College, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He has more than seventeen years of UGs & PGs teaching experience as a faculty member in Community Medicine (Preventive and Social Medicine). Presently he is working as Professor in the Department of Community Medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India. He has published ten papers, attended a dozen conferences, and presented papers there. His fields of research interests are prevention and control of communicable diseases and Epidemiology of non-communicable diseases.

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