Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Union (EU), the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and other organizations summarized existing and planned collaborations on emerging infectious diseases. The session was chaired by David Heymann, WHO, and James LeDuc, CDC. One speaker, V. Ramalingaswami, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India, summarized lessons learned from...

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...

main a major cause of illness and death in South Africa. The medical infrastructure is good in major cities, primary health care is expanding in rural areas, and modern diagnostic facilities are reasonably widely available. Urban areas have a mixture of infectious disease problems encountered in developing as well as industrialized countries, and in the tropical environment of the northeast, ma...

Introduction: In April 2009, a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus was identified in patients from Mexico and the United States. From 8 May through 25 June 2009, in the Republic of Panama, 467 cases infected with the same virus were identified, 13 of which were hospitalized at the Santo Tomas Hospital in Panama City. Up to the date of this report, no deaths have been reported in Panama. This study p...

Detection and control of emerging infectious diseases in conflict situations are major challenges due to multiple risk factors known to enhance emergence and transmission of infectious diseases. These include inadequate surveillance and response systems, destroyed infrastructure, collapsed health systems and disruption of disease control programs, and infection control practices even more inade...

Background: The emergence of influenza A/H1N1/2009 is alarming. The severity of previous epidemics suggests that the susceptibility of the human population to H1N1 is directly proportional to the degree of changes in hemagglutinin/HA and neuraminidase/NA; therefore, H1N1/2009 and H1N1/2008 were analyzed for their sequence as well as structural divergence. Methodology: The structural and sequenc...

The processes which give rise to emerging infectious diseases of wildlife can be categorised as follows: ecosystem alterations of anthropogenic or natural origin; movement of pathogens or vectors, via human or natural agency; and changes in microbes or in the recognition of emerging pathogens due to advances in the techniques of epidemiology. These are simplistic divisions because factors influ...

Since 1990, Mongolia's health system has been in transition. Impressive gains have been accomplished through a national immunization program, which was instituted in 1991. Nevertheless, the country continues to confront four major chronic infections: hepatitis B and C, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). As of 2001, only two cases of HIV infections had been dete...

The recent emergence of a new strain (H5N1) of influenza A virus, the so-called avian or bird flu, in Hong Kong underlines the importance of the Southeast Asia region as an epicenter not only for influenza A viruses but also for other microbial agents. In late 1992, Vibrio cholerae O139 appeared on the Indian subcontinent; and within a few months, it had spread to China, Nepal, Pakistan, Malays...

Over the past 30 years, at least 30 new infectious diseases have emerged to threaten the health of millions of people across the globe. The major challenge to combat these infections is that for many of them, there is no specific treatment or cure or vaccine. There is limited scope of preventing or controlling them. The contributory factors include urbanization and destruction of natural habita...