The spread of a contagious disease is often accompanied by a rise in awareness of those in the social vicinity of infected individuals, and a subsequent change in behaviour. Such reactions can manifest themselves in lower susceptibility as people try to prevent themselves from catching the disease, but also in lower infectivity because of self-imposed quarantine or better hygiene, shorter durat...

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases. Before the introduction of the measles vaccine, nearly all children contracted measles. By the end of the 1980s, most countries of the world had incorporated the measles vaccine into their routine vaccination programs. Globally, some 345,000 deaths due to measles still occur every year. Eradication of measles would play an important role in improv...

This issue of Dynamis presents a collection of articles on the beginnings of a biological treatment: diphtheria serotherapy. This therapy contributed to a decisive change in public and private behaviours towards cases of infectious/contagious disease. The phrase «herald of the new medicine», which appears in the title of this introduction, was used by the Spanish Health Council to describe the ...

Introduction Mass gatherings can impact on the health of the public including importation of infectious diseases, exposure of international visitors to endemic diseases in the host country and the increased risk of bioterrorist activity.1 Public health surveillance during mass gatherings therefore affords an opportunity to identify, and quantify any impact (or reassure on the absence of impact)...

Animal diseases, foodborne pathogens and foodborne diseases have enormous impacts upon the health and livelihoods of producers and consumers in developing and in-transition countries. Unfortunately, the capacity for effective surveillance of infectious disease threats is often limited in these countries, leading to chronic under-reporting. This further contributes towards underestimating the ef...

Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthes are among seventeen WHO prioritized neglected tropical diseases that infect humans. These parasitic infections can be treated using single-dose and safe drugs. Ethiopia successfully mapped the distribution of these infections nationwide. According to the mapping there are an estimated 37.3 million people living in schistosomiasis endemic areas, an...

UNLABELLED The incidence of hepatitis A in NSW has declined in recent years, but the relative importance of risk factors remains unclear. METHODS We analysed case data from the NSW Notifiable Diseases Database from 1991 to 2006. RESULTS Hepatitis A notification rates fell from 18.9 to 1.4 cases per 100 000 between 1991 and 2006. International travel to endemic areas was the likely exposure ...

While many public health and university laboratories have become involved in COVID-19 testing during the pandemic, these now run risk of being underutilized as wanes. This is particularly true established low- middle-income countries (LMICs). In this article, we make a case for repurposing to support control programs neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) endemic they contemplate how strengthen lab...

The introduction of vaccination worldwide dramatically reduced the incidence of pathogenic bacterial and viral diseases. Despite the highly successful vaccination strategies, the number of cases among vaccine preventable diseases has increased in the last decade and several of those diseases are still endemic in different countries. Here we discuss some epidemiological aspects and possible argu...

Perspectives Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa – the countries known as BRICS – are transitioning from emerging economies to leaders in geopolitical affairs. While BRICS face increasing prevalence of noncom-municable disease and injury, they also continue to be burdened by many infectious diseases, including neglected tropical diseases. Neglected tropical diseases ar...