The specialty of infectious diseases, although small in comparison to the system-based specialties, provides the opportunity of a career ranging from challenging and constantly varied clinical management to intellectually stimulating frontier research into diseases of worldwide importance.
The specialty has encompassed the requirements of a clear objective-based training curriculum and offers training programmes ranging from pure Infectious Diseases to combined training in Infectious disease and General medicine, Infectious Disease and Medical Microbiology, and Infectious Disease, Tropical Medicine and General Medicine.
The essential (generic) training tracks in the curriculum are designed to train to competency in:
The challenge to rationalise antibiotic use in the light of increasing microbial resistance, to combat clinical problems of healthcare acquired infection and worldwide pandemics of HIV, Hepatitis and Malaria, and to respond to emerging infection problems such as SARS makes infectious diseases an exciting and contemporary specialty.