7.5: Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases
Although we will still focus on eradicating those deadly diseases that we can, history has taught us to also be prepared for new infectious diseases to emerge - and sometimes new variants of old ones to re-emerge. Emerging infectious diseases are those that “have recently appeared within a population or those whose incidence or geographic range is rapidly increasing or threatens to increase in the near future.”( Emerging Infectious Diseases , Baylor College of Medicine, n.d.) When certain diseases are on the decline and then the incidence starts increasing again, or perhaps a new disease is discovered from a known pathogen - these are referred to as re-emerging diseases .