Protean Nature of Infectious Diseases – Trends in the Territory of the Republic of Serbia

In infectology, more than anywhere else in medicine, we are witnessing the variability, vicissitude of pathology. The changes of the relationship of man and his microbial environment have been especially dynamic in the last decades. In order to define the nature of this process, its possible origin and regularity, we compared the reports on infectious diseases in the Republic of Serbia for 1987 (from 1983 to 1987) and 2004 (from 2000 to 2004). A statistically significant reduction of morbidity was found, caused by a reduced incidence of vaccine-preventable infections (rubella, mumps morbilli, pertussis) and infections related to basic hygiene habits and sanitation (gastrointestinal tract infections, scabies, viral hepatitis type A, gonorrhoea...). On the other hand, there were significantly more infections caused by infectious mononucleosis and morbus Lyme agents, which have a specific relationship with the immune system, as well as the diseases which are the consequence of immune deficiency, such as herpes zoster or fungal diseases. At the same time, paradoxically, changes in the immune status and increased microbial resistance are the basis of a significant increase of mortality from infectious diseases. Overall, the evolution of our relationship with microbial environment is the consequence of general social progress, as well as the progress of medicine itself, and this relationship is nowadays characterized by the prevalence of infections caused by the microbial agents conditionally compromising with their hosts.