This book provides a key for students to open the door to medical molecular virology, and therefore it only introduces the important themes of medical molecular virology. Questions are included between sections in all chapters, but with no "standard" answers. These questions are raised to prompt active and innovative discussion.
The contents of this book are divided into two parts. The first 9 chapters introduce the important aspects of general medical molecular virology. Some chapters ask questions like "What is a virus?" "Are virus and cells interdependent?" "Is persistent virus infection a favorable balance?" "Why are there so many types of illterferons?" "Why is virus nomenclature important?" Other chapters describe viral oncogenesis,antiviral development, vaccines and prions. The latter three chapters describe selected individual viruses, which cover the RNA viruses(influenza virus, enteroviruses, Hantaan virus and flaviviruses), the RNA-DNA intermediate viruses (human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis B virus), and DNA viruses (herpesviruses, human papilloma viruses,adenoviruses and poxviruses).
It is hoped that by reading this book and by participating in discussions,the students will be interested in a further reading, and a list of reading materials is suggested at the end of each chapter.

Yu-Mei Wen, graduated from Shanghai First Medical College, China, was a WHO Fellow at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and was a Fogarty FelIow at Hepatitis Viruses Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NlAID, National lnstitutes of Health, Bethesda,USA. Her main research interest is in molecular virology and immunology of hepatitis B virus, and published 210 articIes in journals home and abroad. She has been teaching virology to medical students for more than 30 years, and this book is written to stimulate original thinking in her students.
Philip P Mortimer, former director of the Virus Reference Division of the Public Health Laboratory Service, UK. His main interest have been in blood borne viruses and in the application of technical advances in viraI diagnosis to clinical and public health problems. He has published 150 original
articles and reviews in peer reviewed journals.
Jia-you Zhang, associate professor at the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics,University of Kentucky, USA. Awarded PhD by the University of Texas at Austin. He was a postdoctoraI fellow under the tutorship of late Prof. Temin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he estabIished a model for formation of a transducing retrovirus by non-homologous recombination.His main interest is in retroviraI recombination. He has published papers in Science, Molecular CelluIar Biology and the Journal of Virology.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Is a virus just a packet of genes?
Chapter 2 Viruses and host cells -- Are they interdependent?
Chapter 3 Persistent virus infection -- a favorabIe balance or not?
Chapter 4 Why are there so many types of intederons?
Chapter 5 Viral oncogenesis -- an unexpected outcome of virus infection
Chapter 6 Antiviral drug deveIopment -- hopes and disappointments
Chapter 7 Vaccines -- an outstanding success
Chapter 8 Prions -- a challenge to dogma
Chapter 9 Why is virus nomenclature important?
Chapter 10 RNA viruses
10. 1 Influenza virus -- an example of virus mutations
l0. 2 Enteroviruses -- multiple Organ-targeting
l0. 3 Hantaan virus -- immunopathogenesis
l0. 4 Flaviviruses -- the old and the new comes
Chapter 11 RNA-DNA intermediate viruses
11. 1 Human immunodeficiency -- a current plague
11. 2 Hepatitis B virus -- a virus of great concern
Chapter 12 DNA viruses
l2. 1 Herpes viruses and viral latency
l2. 2 Human papilloma viruses -- potetial for oncogenesis
l2. 3 Adenovirus -- dual roles as a pathogen and a gene theray vector
l2. 4 Poxviruses -- alert against bioterrorism