H
uman population growth, technological advances, and changing social behaviors lead to the selection of new microbial pathogens. Antimicrobial drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for emerging infectious diseases must be developed. The selective forces that drive the emergence of new infectious diseases, and the implications for our survival, are just beginning to be understood.
Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Numbers indicate the people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2002. Locations of recent outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases are indicated. Source: WHO (7).
