Infectious diseases: history, present and the way forward

- Insha Pun

Every health care and public health professionals would agree that among the many challenges to public health, infectious diseases are the most unique; they can pose a threat to entire human existence and history. Infectious diseases include a range of disorders that are caused by microorganisms such as bacteria (tuberculosis), virus (COVID 19), fungi (ringworm) or parasite (Malaria). Their occurrences are unpredictable and they can have an explosive effect at the global level infecting tens of millions of people and killing other millions. What is more, few viruses that cause the infectious diseases have an edge over our immune system, once reaching our body, they can replicate and mutate at a daunting rate using our own immune system, this, in turn, makes our body “a powerhouse” and a “producer” of the strains of the virus. These evolving characteristics of most of the viruses make it untameable to medicines and drugs and thus making the entire global community vulnerable to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.