Emerging and Re-Emerging Diseases: Novel Challenges in Today’s World or More of the Same?

Abstract

More than 61% of all human pathogens are zoonotic, representing 75% of all emerging pathogens during the past decade. Albeit significant technological leaps in diagnostics development and disease surveillance, zoonotic emerging infectious diseases are evermore a matter of concern, particularly in modern days where global warming keeps providing ideal climatic conditions to the introduction of exotic infectious agents or disease vectors in new territories. Worryingly, the 2019 novel coronavirus epidemic acts as an extreme reminder of the role animal reservoirs play in public health, accounting for over 4,200,000 deaths worldwide until today. In this Special Issue, we approach a myriad of zoonotic infectious diseases and their complex mechanisms. This Special Issue is composed of three reviews on zoonotic diseases of African Lions, hemogregarine classification, and hepatitis E virus in Brazil, followed by one letter and one opinion piece that broadens the spectrum of disease emergence to mechanistic aspects of emerging non-communicable diseases. The Special Issue is completed by six research papers covering a wide array of emerging and re-emerging diseases of poultry, bovine, poultry and tortoises, of various nature such as parasitic, bacterial, and viral. This is a brief but assertive collection that showcases the need to address health at the animal–human–environment interface, in a One Health perspective.

High-Throughput Phenotypic Screening and Machine Learning Methods Enabled the Selection of Broad-Spectrum Low-Toxicity Antitrypanosomatidic Agents

“…Recent analysis reports that 75% of all emerging human infectious diseases in the past three decades worldwide originated in animals . Poor and disadvantaged populations (subtropical regions), European Mediterranean countries may spread new infectious agents .…”

“…Recent analysis reports that 75% of all emerging human infectious diseases in the past three decades worldwide originated in animals. 3 Poor and disadvantaged populations (subtropical regions), European Mediterranean countries may spread new infectious agents. 4 Infections caused by Trypanosomatidae such as Chagas diseases, Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), and Leishmaniasis account for 17% of the estimated global burden of all infectious diseases (700,000 deaths/year).…”

Emerging Animal-Associated Fungal Diseases

“…Several of these emergent fungal infections have been described as zoonoses. Animals have been construed as the main contributors to infectious human diseases, representing 75% of all emerging infections [ 11 ]. Nonetheless, this fraction does not separate true animal pathogens from environmental pathogens that thrive on fecal matter and decaying animal bodies.…”