Health literacy: a concept with potential to greatly impact the infectious diseases field

This edition of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases presents a comprehensive narrative review of health literacy research by Castro-Sánchez et al. that has been undertaken across conditions and countries. Health literacy is a relatively new concept in medicine and, for many, has some immediate appeal. The term was coined by Simonds in the 1970s, who argued the case for school health education, with the intention that pupils would not only be educated in the customary curriculum subjects, but might become as ‘literate’ in health as they were, for example, in history and science.