Overview of Infectious Diseases

Ring around the rosey
Pocket full of posey
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down

This familiar nursery rhyme is no innocent look at flowers, it actually refers to the plague of Europe in the late 1300's, when tens of thousands of people died leaving Europe with almost half of its original population. This type of epidemic is somewhat unusual but there currently exists in our world several "hot spots". The Asian country of Taiwan is reporting epidemic numbers of children suffering from Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD). Currently 35 locations in Africa have outbreaks of Cholera. The "Four Corners" region in the southwestern United States was the first location where people were diagnosed with Hantavirus carried by 2 types of rodents. Yellow fever is being reported in 17 countries. The bubonic Plague is currently occurring in Vietnam, while Kenya and Somalia are locations for endemic Rift Valley Fever. In Nairobi, Kenya there is an epidemic of Meningiococcal Disease and the former Soviet Union still has reported cases of Diphtheria.

Emerging infectious diseases are diseases of infectious origin whose incidence in humans has increased within the past two decades or threatens to increase in the near future. Many factors, or combinations of factors, can contribute to disease emergence, such as societal events, availability of health care, food production, human behavior and environmental changes. New infectious diseases may emerge from genetic changes in existing organisms; known diseases may spread to new geographic areas and populations; and previously unknown infections may appear in humans living or working in changing ecologic conditions that increase their exposure to insect vectors, animal reservoirs, or environmental sources of novel pathogens. Reemergence may occur because of the development of antimicrobial resistance in existing infections or breakdowns in public health measures for previously controlled infections.

Environmental changes such as deforestation/reforestation; changes in water ecosystems; flood/drought; famine and global warming all contribute to the emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases. Currently the CDC and other reporting agencies list at least 17 infectious diseases in the world today. Where are we going with global climate changes? Can we help to prevent of limit the spread of infectious diseases? Is there a chance that the microbes are smarter than us?

Other diseases that are currently listed as occurring somewhere in the world :

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