Emerging and Neglected Infectious Diseases: Insights, Advances, and Challenges

Abstract

Infectious diseases are a significant burden on public health and economic stability of societies all over the world. They have for centuries been among the leading causes of death and disability and presented growing challenges to health security and human progress. The threat posed by infectious diseases is further deepened by the continued emergence of new, unrecognized, and old infectious disease epidemics of global impact. Over the past three and half decades at least 30 new infectious agents affecting humans have emerged, most of which are zoonotic and their origins have been shown to correlate significantly with socioeconomic, environmental, and ecological factors. As these factors continue to increase, putting people in increased contact with the disease causing pathogens, there is concern that infectious diseases may continue to present a formidable challenge. Constant awareness and pursuance of effective strategies for controlling infectious diseases and disease emergence thus remain crucial. This review presents current updates on emerging and neglected infectious diseases and highlights the scope, dynamics, and advances in infectious disease management with particular focus on WHO top priority emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and neglected tropical infectious diseases.

Overlapping CD8 + and CD4 + T-cell epitopes identification for the progression of epitope-based peptide vaccine from nucleocapsid and glycoprotein of emerging Rift Valley fever virus using immunoinformatics approach

“…Over the past thirty-five years, about thirty viral pathogens have emerged due to their human affecting nature. Most of these pathogens are zoonotic and their origins are ominously correlated with ecological, environmental, and socioeconomic factors (Dye, 2014;Nii-Trebi, 2017).Top priority emerging infectious diseases such as Rift Valley fever, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease, Marburg haemorrhagic fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Nipah, and Lassa fever are caused by the viral pathogens which are highly pathogenic to the human (Nii-Trebi, 2017). The immunity associated with protection from these pathogens remains largely unknown to the researchers.…”

Functional Carbon Quantum Dots as Medical Countermeasures to Human Coronavirus

“…The lack of targeted antiviral therapeutics as well as the constant emergence of new viruses make the search for antiviral agents a challenging and extremely needed research task. 1 As part of a global strategy to prevent epidemics, some severe emerging pathogens with great epidemic potential have been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO), 2 including, next to Ebola virus disease, the highly pathogenic human coronavirus (HCoV) infections. While circulating HCoVs (HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HKU1) cause relatively mild common cold-like respiratory tract infections, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle-East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) lead to pneumonia requiring hospitalization and intensive care.…”

Interferons and beyond: Induction of antiretroviral restriction factors

“…As outlined below, accumulating evidence shows that also other classes of IFNs, various cytokines and cellular activation levels modulate the expression and activity of antiviral effector proteins. Viral infections continue to represent a major threat to human health and cause millions of deaths each year . Thus, a better understanding of the induction and means to strengthen the human antiviral defense mechanisms is of great importance.…”