Infections and Public Health

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health and Epidemiology

“…21 Vaccination against smallpox developed for almost 2 centuries before the disease was certified as being eliminated in 1980. 22 What was needed was a thorough understanding of the epidemiology of the disease. By studying seasonal variation and transmission within an infection cluster, it was shown that with vaccination of perhaps 5% of the population, the immediate case contacts was just as effective as vaccinating 100% of the population.…”

Leprosy

“…We would like to think that it will be our last, but as leprosy remains an important public health problem around the world that is unlikely. We have previously mentioned leprosy in an editorial just once when we reported that the WHO estimated that there were 233000 new cases occurring in 2012 1 . By 2014, it was estimated that the number of new cases had declined marginally to 220000 including 5000 in the Western Pacific and 215000 in South East Asia 2 .…”

Leptospirosis

“…9,10 With the climate change our earth is undergoing, leptospirosis is becoming an increasing burden. [11][12][13] The changing epidemiology of leptospirosis is a model of the public health challenges that our region will face over the next few decades. In this issue of the journal, we continue to follow the increasing importance of leptospirosis in our region with a review of the increasing rates of the disease in Malaysia.…”