Planet’s population on the move, infections on the rise

Excerpt

In recent years we have been witnessing infections caused by emerging and re-emerging pathogens. Climate change extends the suitable environment for vectors previously confined to particular geographic areas; consequently, tropical diseases are no longer constricted in tropical areas. However, the most important parameter for “globalization” of infectious diseases is the restless mobility of humans. International travel has been steadily increasing beyond travel for business and tourism. Visiting friends and relatives, pilgrimage, medical tourism, and voluntary humanitarian and healthcare work may contribute to increasing risk for infectious diseases and cross-border spread [1]. On top of that, in the last 3 years, conflicts, poverty, and political instability in several countries produced a huge flow of migrants and refugees into Europe. Locally and internationally displaced people are temporarily settled in organized or random overcrowded camps. Until now, the most common infections reported in refugee populations have been skin infections, common viral respiratory syndromes, gastrointestinal syndromes, cases of inadequately treated tuberculosis, and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. However, concerns about emerging and re-emerging diseases in migrants and refugees include more severe diseases like viral hemorrhagic fevers, cholera, and severe respiratory syndromes. On the basis of the incubation periods, most infections concern transit and temporary settlement countries, whereas malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and hepatitis B and C may also emerge in final destination countries. Migrants and refugees are prone to endemic infections in the transit countries, including vector-borne diseases [2, 3]. …