Control of emerging infectious diseases will be difficult because of the large number of disease-causing organisms that are emerging or could emerge and the great diversity of geographic areas in which emergence can occur. The modern view of the evolution of pathogen virulence—specifically its focus on the tradeoff between costs and benefits to the pathogen from increased host exploitation—allows control programs to identify and focus on the most dangerous pathogens (those that can be established with high virulence in human populations).
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