News

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Emerging Infectious Diseases, Monday 20 May 2013 - Volume 19, Number 6—June 2013   Prospects for Emerging Infections in East and Southeast Asia 10 Years after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome   http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/6/12-1783_article.htm   Author affiliations: Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Hanoi, Vietnam (P.W. Horby); University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (P.W. Horby); National University of Singapore (P.W. Horby); Singapore; Royal Veterinary College, London, UK (D. Pfeiffer); Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan (H. Oshitani) Horby P, Pfeiffer D, Oshitani H. Prospects for emerging infections in East and Southeast Asia 10 years after severe acute respiratory syndrome. Emerg Infect Dis [Internet]. 2013 Jun [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1906.121783 DOI: 10.3201/eid1906.121783 Abstract It is 10 years since severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emerged, and East and Southeast Asia retain a reputation as a hot spot of emerging infectious diseases. The region is certainly a hot spot of socioeconomic and environmental change, and although some changes (e.g., urbanization and agricultural intensification) may reduce the probability of emerging infectious diseases, the effect of any individual emergence event may be increased by the greater concentration and connectivity of livestock, persons, and products. The region is now better able to detect and respond to emerging infectious diseases than it was a decade ago, but the tools and methods to produce sufficiently refined assessments of the risks of disease emergence are still lacking. Given the continued scale and pace of change in East and Southeast Asia, it is vital that capabilities for predicting, identifying, and controlling biologic threats do not stagnate as the memory of SARS fades.