eBook: New Frontiers in Infectious Disease Research - 3

Advancing Preventive and
Diagnostic Measures to Mitigate
Infectious Disease Outbreaks
Novel tools aim to mitigate current and future infectious
disease spread
Over 270 viruses are known to infect humans.1
But
millions of other virus species, either yet to be discovered,
or which affect plants and animals, have
the potential to spread to us if they accumulate
the right cluster of mutations to unlock our cells
and bypass our defenses.2
COVID's irreversible
momentum showed us how quickly a pandemic
can materialize.3
According to experts, continued microbial evolution
and human behavior are on a collision course.4
It's not your imagination-infectious disease outbreaks
are growing more common. A recent study
found that 58% of public health threats are fueled
by climate change.5
Alongside rising global temperatures,
the number of epidemics, too, is on the
rise, as we've seen with SARS, MERS, Zika, West Nile,
COVID, and now clusters of monkeypox and polio.
As lands grow warmer, larger swaths grow more accessible
to host animals or insects, while increased
deforestation and urbanization mean humans are
entering wilderness previously untouched. The result
is increased encounters between people and
animals and increased probability that zoonotic viruses
emerge leaving us vulnerable to new disease
and potential pandemics. Spurred on by globalization
and other factors, we too must continually
evolve our defenses.
In this eBook we will explore some of the tools that
researchers are developing to mitigate current and
future infectious disease spread. Newer vaccine
design, faster molecular diagnosis, and more accessible
metagenomic next-generation sequencing
(mNGS) help to ensure that the next potential
outbreak is contained and quickly abates before
zipping around the planet.
Staying a step ahead of
microbial evolution
As people and animals continue to collide, the probability
that zoonotic viruses make the jump to our
species increases. Coronaviruses live in bats. Influenza
viruses infect birds. These viruses spread when
host species roam beyond previous geographical
boundaries, engendered by warming temperatures
and urbanization. To counter disease outbreaks now
occurring with greater frequency, newer, more efficient,
easily scalable methods must also progress to
both prevent and treat the infection.
3
eBook: New Frontiers in Infectious Disease Research

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of eBook: New Frontiers in Infectious Disease Research
