The evolution of law to respond to a societal need is a recurring theme for scholars and legislators alike. No challenge is too big for the rhetorical strength of the legal system: "Show us a wrong and we'll create a prohibition or incentive to solve it!" Infectious disease does not follow that path. It mutates, its diagnosis is muddied, its DNA may adapt, and its host animals or humans will migrate, spreading the illness. Law may be an art form, but the science of pathogenic microbes is definitely more technical and less artistic. So the lawyer must know that the power of persuasive oratory has never moved a single virus.

It is the consequences of infection that law can address: workers' compensation systems for hospital employees, disability determinations for patients severely impacted by infection, rejection of delivery for commercial shipments of goods that may have been carrying a harmful pathogen, or lawsuits against surgeons who were careless during or after surgical operations.

Infectious Disease Policy, Law, and Regulation looks at litigation regarding infection-related illnesses and their compensation. The claim arises from an individual victim who attempts to prove that the cause of their specific infection was the negligent act of an entity that is a "vector" of their type of illness, such as a hospital, surgeon, restaurant or retail marketplace.

The book addresses topics including: