Emerging infectious diseases: nursing responses.

T h e of the potentially disasspecter trous effects of an outbreak of an emerging infectious disease has received widespread attention in the scientific community, political arenas, and the national media. In addition to being the topic of special scientific sessions such as that of the New York Academy of Sciences 1 and being featured in several recent popular books z'3 and movies, it has also been the focus of several conferences sponsored by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) 4'5 and of a new journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, by the National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the decade following World War II, it was widely believed in the United States that infectious diseases had been conquered and that infections could be treated by antimicrobial therapy or prevented by vaccination, good sanitation, and environmental controls. This belief was reinforced when it was declared that the goal of the worldwide eradication of smallpox was achieved in 1977. Indeed, by the 1960s, this sense of complacence led to decreased funding for both basic and clinical research related to infectious diseases and to a decline in stringent infection control strategies and the erosion of the public health infrastructure in the United States. This