"The vast majority of medically important pathogens infect their host across a body surface such as the skin, or across a mucosal tissue such as the respiratory tract or intestines, as these sites are the ones exposed to the external environment. By focusing on immunity at mucosal and body surfaces this book presents a fresh, new approach to the teaching of immunology. After an introduction to the basic structure of the immune system, the book looks at two important families of signalling molecules: cytokines and chemokines, before covering the workings of the mucosal immune system. It continues by examining immunity against the four major groups of pathogens - viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites, and concludes by looking at disorders of the immune system, mucosal tumour immunology and the process of vaccination."--Provided by publisher.