Emerging diseases

Clinical information

Over the past years, the global spread of many new viruses and other pathogens has been observed. The associated diseases are called “emerging infectious diseases”. This term refers to infectious diseases that occur for the first time in a population or have increased rapidly in incidence or regional distribution. Viruses transmitted by arthropods, also known as arboviruses, are among the most common causative agents of diseases in humans worldwide and have posed a growing problem over the past decades. Arboviruses have a great ability to mutate and adapt, which is why they often cause outbreaks. Important examples are dengue and chikungunya fever as well as Zika fever, which spread to large parts of South America in 2015/2016. However, also in moderate climates – like in Europe – arboviruses such as West Nile virus and chikungunya virus have caused seasonal outbreaks in the past. The clinical courses of diseases caused by arboviruses are very similar, so that diagnosis cannot be based on the clinical picture alone.

In addition to the before-mentioned arboviruses, there are various other pathogens that cause large outbreaks and could develop into a significant global health problem, such as SARS-CoV-2, which led to a pandemic.

Diagnostics

Diagnosis of these diseases is particularly challenging, as there are often no commercial diagnostic test systems available for the corresponding parameters. Generally, an infection with a causative agent of an emerging disease is diagnosed based on clinical and epidemiological criteria as well as laboratory findings. Laboratory diagnostics use both direct and indirect detection methods and are particularly important for testing travellers after trips to endemic areas and for screening large population groups in the case of an epidemic or a pandemic.