EMERGING AND PERSISTENT INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Infectious diseases are a leading cause of human suffering and death, a major threat to international commerce and an increasingly critical source of political instability across the globe. While infectious disease outbreaks sporadically grab the public imagination and headlines (e.g., SARS, mad cow disease, flesh-eating bacteria and the swine flu), the news media rarely identify the complexity of scientific and technological (S&T) factors that must be considered to establish the domestic and international policies needed to effectively combat infectious diseases.
In a world experiencing a rapidly increasing population (nearly 9 billion people are expected to inhabit the planet before 2040), the combination of emerging and persistent infections and chronic conditions is dramatically altering societal capabilities to deal with human health. As a consequence, EPID has the potential for dominating policy decisions, including those directly determining national security, worldwide prosperity, and social stability.