New and Reemerging Diseases: The Importance of Biomedical Research

摘要

A generation ago, it was suggested that the threat of infectious diseases would soon become an artifact of history. Today, as we approach the new millennium, the folly of this position is increasingly clear. My 87-year-old father recently reminded me of this. In the course of his lifetime, spent almost entirely in New York City, he has witnessed two pandemics of extraordinary impact: the global influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, which killed more than 20 million people worldwide, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which began to accelerate in the early 1980s and continues unabated in some parts of the world. In addition, at least 30 other new and reemerging diseases and syndromes have been recognized since the 1970s, including liver disease due to hepatitis C virus, Lyme disease, foodborne illness caused by Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Cyclospora, waterborne disease due to Cryptosporidium, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and human disease caused by the avian H5N1 influenza virus (Figure 1). Clearly, we remain vulnerable to new and reemerging diseases.