Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), Ebola virus infection, bird flu, influenza, and SARS are a few examples of emerging infectious diseases. Do you know what emerging infectious diseases (PIE) are? They require special attention because they affect not only public health generally but also socially and economically.

What are Emerging Infectious Diseases?

The world's population is now concerned about several new diseases that emerged just recently. In addition, a number of centuries-old diseases that were formerly endemic have resurfaced in places where there has never been an infection. The disease belongs to the category of newly discovered infectious diseases.

The following are some criteria for emerging infectious diseases, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID):

• An outbreak of a previously unknown disease
• A disease whose number of cases has increased rapidly and expanded geographically over the last 2 decades
• The persistence of infectious diseases is difficult to control

Reporting from Baylor College of Medicine, emerging infectious diseases can be caused by infectious agents that were previously undetected or unknown, or infectious agents that are known but spread to new geographic locations, causing new transmission.

Emerging infectious diseases are also caused by the re-emergence of agents whose disease incidence has decreased significantly in the past but are now appearing again. This type of disease is usually known as a re-emerging infectious disease.

Generally, the types of diseases that fall into the re-emerging category are zoonotic diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans. Several types of diseases in this category include chikungunya and malaria.

Potential infectious diseases are more likely to spread quickly and cause worldwide epidemics because so many people live in densely populated places, travel great distances between continents, and interact with wild animals.

In addition, excessive consumption of antibiotics by humans might lead to drug resistance in some cases. This behavior also leads to the recurrence of diseases that were previously treatable and controlled.

Classification of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites all have the potential to cause emerging infectious diseases. NIAID classifies emerging infectious diseases into three groups based on their potential risk to general public health services:

Category A

Category A infectious disease is the most dangerous because the pathogen is easily spread between humans, produces significant mortality, and has the potential to disrupt the public health system, resulting in anxiety and social disturbance while necessitating particular public health preparedness measures.

This category includes emerging infectious diseases such as plague, anthrax, botulism, chickenpox, Ebola, and dengue fever.

Category B

Category B is the second most important disease among emerging infectious diseases. This condition spreads quickly, causes moderate morbidity and low death, and necessitates significant increases in diagnostic capabilities and disease surveillance.

Hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika viral infection, Salmonella bacterial infection, listeria, and typhus are all examples of this type of disease.

Category C

Infectious illnesses classified as C can be developed for mass spreading in the future due to their high morbidity and mortality rates and significant medical effects. This category includes diseases such as tuberculosis, rabies, Hendra virus, Nipah virus, Hanta virus, and influenza.

Each country faces different emerging infectious diseases. However, in general, emerging infectious diseases need serious attention because they have the potential to paralyze people's health and social and economic conditions.

Immediately consult a doctor if you experience an infectious disease, especially if you have recently traveled from another country that is an outbreak or endemic location.

If you need medical advice or consultation, you can either visit a doctor or make use of the consultation features that are available in the Ai Care application by downloading the Ai Care application from the App Store or Play Store.

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