Risk of Infections in Patients with Chronic Diseases

The industrialized world is facing what some have called the third epidemiological transition [1]: related to long life expectancy and unhealthy lifestyle factors, an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases is accompanied by revival of many familiar infections [2,3] caused by increasingly resistant microorganisms. Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) [4] such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer currently sweep the entire globe [5, 6]. Diet and lifestyle related diseases are no longer “diseases of the rich” but emerge in developing countries at a fast rate [7], before the battle against poverty and under-nutrition has been won [8]. The risk of many infections may be increased in people with chronic diseases, and developing countries’ health care systems are put under stress with a double burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases [9-11]. Clinical epidemiological studies play a key role in clarifying the association of chronic conditions with susceptibility to and outcome of infectious diseases. Such research studies form the basis for our understanding of disease mechanisms and clinical course, and thus for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of infections in people with chronic disease around the globe. The objective of this special issue of The Open Infectious Disease Journal is to review the existing knowledge on the risk of infections in patients with a number of important chronic diseases.