An Update on Emerging Infectious Diseases-A Global Public Health Threat (original) (raw)

Factors in the Emergence of Infectious Diseases

Emerging Infectious Diseases, 1995

Emerging" infectious diseases can be defined as infections that have newly appeared in a population or have existed but are rapidly increasing in incidence or geographic range. Among recent examples are HIV/AIDS, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Lyme disease, and hemolytic uremic syndrome (a foodborne infection caused by certain strains of Escherichia coli). Specific factors precipitating disease emergence can be identified in virtually all cases. These include ecological, environmental, or demographic factors that place people at increased contact with a previously unfamiliar microbe or its natural host or promote dissemination. These factors are increasing in prevalence; this increase, together with the ongoing evolution of viral and microbial variants and selection for drug resistance, suggests that infections will continue to emerge and probably increase and emphasizes the urgent need for effective surveillance and control. Dr. David Satcher's article and this overview inaugurate "Perspectives," a regular section in this journal intended to present and develop unifying concepts and strategies for considering emerging infections and their underlying factors. The editors welcome, as contributions to the Perspectives section, overviews, syntheses, and case studies that shed light on how and why infections emerge, and how they may be anticipated and prevented.

Environmental Factors Influencing the Spread of Communicable Disease

Human activities are generating an ever-accelerating crescendo of change in the natural environment, while new technologies and globalization mainly continue to alter economic and social patterns across the planet. It is already known that global climate change and degradation and pollution of air, land and water in many areas are capable of predominantly endangering human health. This paper deals with major environmental factors which lead to or initiate the spread of communicable disease like water borne mode, air borne mode etc.

DEVELOPMENT, GLOBAL CHANGE, AND THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

Although improvements in human health represent a crucial aspect of development worldwide, many trends associated with development and global change appear to be reducing health security. In this article, we define the human epidemiological environment and describe key biophysical, economic, sociocultural, and political factors that shape it. The potential impact upon the epidemiological environment of aspects of both development and global change are then examined: the influences of human population size, mobility, geographic distribution, and nutritional status; modernization; loss of indigenous medicinal knowledge; microbial evolution of antibiotic resistance; land conversion and biodiversity loss; agricultural intensification; stratospheric ozone depletion; and climate change. Human vulnerability to infectious disease is often strongly and deleteriously influenced by ongoing, intensifying changes in these factors. An unprecedented level of communication and cooperation between experts, institutions, and nations is required to respond to the increasing threat of epidemic disease, which points to a promising area for enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration. When one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation, how it lies as to the winds and the rising of the sun; for its influence is not the same whether it lies to the north or to the south, to the rising or to the setting sun. These things one ought to consider most attentively, and concerning the waters which the inhabitants use, whether they be marshy and soft, or hard and running from elevated and rocky situations, and then if saltish and unfit for cooking; and the ground, whether it be naked and deficient in water, or wooded and well-watered, and whether it lies in a hollow, confined situation or is elevated and cold...

The Role of Demographics and Human Activities in the Spread of Diseases

The population of the world is currently put at more than 7 billion humans on the planet. This is the highest number of humans at a particular point in time since man began to live on the planet. This population is not static but is rapidly increasing especially in developing countries already overburdened with endemic poverty and poor governance. By the year 2050 most of the most populous countries and cities in the world will be in the developing world which has less income power. With this rapidly growing population comes the challenge of different diseases plaguing man especially zoonoses. The human population plays a pivotal role in the maintenance and spread of diseases in the world. This role is usually played through many of the human activities such as global travel and tourism that promote the spread of disease from one location to another. In order to preserve humanity on the planet with the best possible public health, a holistic one health approach to disease control and prevention is advocated across the globe

Factors and determinants of disease emergence

Revue scientifique et technique-Office international des …, 2004

Emerging infectious diseases can be defined as infections that have newly appeared in a population or are rapidly increasing in incidence or geographic range. Many of these diseases are zoonoses, including such recent examples as avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome, haemolytic uraemic syndrome (a food-borne infection caused by certain strains of Escherichia coli) and probably human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Specific factors precipitating the emergence of a disease can often be identified. These include ecological, environmental or demographic factors that place people in increased contact with the natural host for a previously unfamiliar zoonotic agent or that promote the spread of the pathogen. These factors are becoming increasingly prevalent, suggesting that infections will continue to emerge and probably increase. Strategies for dealing with the problem include focusing special attention on situations that promote disease emergence, especially those in which animals and humans come into contact, and implementing effective disease surveillance and control.

Ray, C.S. 2003. Epidemiology (ix + 52 pages)

2003

Project Thesis for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Forestry, Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh, under my supervision