Ebook: Global Infectious Diseases: Prevention, Control, and Eradication

Introducing a book on global infectious diseases is a daunting challenge. Modern developments in molecular research, newly available opportuni­ ties for earth-orbiting, satellite-based surveillance as a means of predicting certain regional epidemics, and the introduction of remarkable new anti­ biotics which can cure some awesome problems such as river-blindness would each have astonished even the most jaded reader only a few decades ago. Just the same, even with these laudable advances, malaria is still with us and both poliomyelitis and tuberculosis are growing worldwide problems. As a holdover from my own medical school days, I must confess to an affection for the older term of "tropical medicine" and its historic context, in preference to the more popular present name which is the title of this book. A century or two ago the motives to study tropical medicine were obvious: nations having enormous amounts of maritime trade with distant lands established colonial empires where health in the colonies was a con­ cern for both the natives and the colonists. It is unsurprising that the great institutes for such studies sprang up in London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, New York and New Orleans, but few of these centers and other similar ones have continued to flourish or even to survive, perhaps because the days of empires have gone.

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The subject of the book is global infectious diseases and includes 12 entities that were carefully selected for diversity of epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis, and immune mechanisms. Each topic (schistosomiasis, malaria, filariasis, arboviruses, diarrheal diseases, AIDS, hepatitis, fungal diseases, Chagas' disease, rickettsial diseases, Lyme disease, and cysticercosis) is particularly interesting in its own right. Each entity will be reviewed by an expert who perceives the big picture and will cover the epidemiology, ecology, pathogenesis, immunity, and relevant molecular data pertinent to the etiologic agents and their hosts. Each expert will then express his opinion as to the best approach to eridicate, control, or contain the disease in the near future by attacking the most vulnerable point in the interaction of the etiologic agent and the host or the environment. Molecular approaches will be described which point towards novel methods to stimulate affective immunity, eradicate a vector, render it genetically incompetent, or develop a new therapeutic intervention. The ultimate standard and the reasons for its success and the failure of other eradication campaigns will be posed by Dr. D.A. Henderson, leader of the successful campaign to eradicate smallpox and currently a high level advisor in the White House.