Emerging infectious disease: Difference between revisions

An emerging infectious disease (EID) is an infectious disease whose incidence has increased in the past 20 years and could increase in the near future. Emerging infections account for at least 12% of all human pathogens.^[1] EIDs are caused by newly identified species or strains (e.g. SARS, AIDS);^[2] that may have evolution from a known infection (e.g. influenza) or be identified only when it spreads to a new population (e.g. West Nile virus). EIDs can also be previously known infections that arrive in an area undergoing ecologic transformation (e.g. Lyme disease), of be reemerging with the spread of drug resistance (e.g. tuberculosis). Of growing concern are adverse synergistic interactions between emerging diseases and other infectious and non-infectious conditions leading to the development of novel syndemics.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that identifies the following factors contributing to disease emergence:

• Microbial adaption; e.g. genetic drift and genetic shift in Influenza A
• Changing human susceptibility; e.g. mass immunocompromisation with HIV/AIDS
• Climate and weather; e.g. diseases with zoonotic vectors such as West Nile Disease (transmitted by mosquitoes) are moving further from the tropics as the climate warms
• Change in human demographics and trade; e.g. rapid travel enabled SARS to rapidly propagate around the globe
• Economic development; e.g. use of antibiotics to increase meat yield of farmed cows leads to antibiotic resistance ^{[citation needed]}
• Breakdown of public health; e.g. the current situation in Zimbabwe
• Poverty and social inequality; e.g. tuberculosis is primarily a problem in low-income areas
• War and famine
• Bioterrorism; e.g. 2001 Anthrax attacks
• Dam and irrigation system construction; e.g. malaria and other mosquito borne diseases

See also

• Zoonosis

References

External links

• Emerging Diseases in a changing European eNvironment (EDEN)- Integrated Project of the European Commission
• Lashley FR (2004). "Emerging infectious diseases: vulnerabilities, contributing factors and approaches". Expert review of anti-infective therapy. 2 (2): 299–316. doi:10.1586/14787210.2.2.299. PMID 15482195.
• Singer MC, Erickson PI, Badiane L, Diaz R, Ortiz D, Abraham T, Nicolaysen AM (2006). "Syndemics, sex and the city: understanding sexually transmitted diseases in social and cultural context". Social Science & Medicine. 63 (8): 2010–2021. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.05.012. PMID 16782250.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Koh, Y, Hegney, D., Drury V. (2010). A comprehensive systematic review of the nurses’ perceptions of risk from exposure to emerging acute respiratory infectious diseases and the effectiveness of strategies used to facilitate healthy coping in acute hospital and community health care settings. JBI Library of Systematic Reviews. 8 (23): 917-971.
• Laegreid, W.W.,Impacts of Emerging Infectious Disease Research on International Security Policy, ACDIS International Security Policy Brief no. 1 (April 2008), Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.