Integrates headline-making disease outbreaks into microbiology coursework to provide critical content to college-age students. • Presents case studies covering a wide variety of subject areas, including general, medical, environmental, and industrial microbiology. • Integrates current outbreaks that are featured in news headlines into the classroom for added relevance. • Features a discovery-oriented answer key that directs students to appropriate reference material rather than providing complete answers to the study questions. • Introduces students to the relevance of diverse social, economic, political, and religious issues that exist in various parts of the world. • Provides case studies of varying levels of difficulty. • Presents complete information about each disease and microbe covered.