Like other biomedical sciences, medical virology has undergone a revolution of diagnostic and scientific approaches through the advent of molecular biological techniques. Developing and maintaining an appropriate mixture of classical and molecular techniques for viral analysis is one of the challenges of medical virology today, and this volume addresses these issues. Topics covered include a broad description of "classical" techniques in viral diagnosis, nucleic acid detection by extraction and hybridization, use of the polymerase chain reaction, the application of various molecular techniques to aspects of the epidemiology of virus infections, and the principles and practical approaches to the analysis of viral evolution. The book will be of interest to students, researchers and professionals in medical virologoy, particularly hospital workers, microbiology, and molecular biology.