NAMEUNIVERSITY
Emerging infections are defined by Friis and Sellers (2014) as infectious diseases which were just lately identified and classified taxonomically. The majority of them can cause strong and dangerous epidemics. The term is opposed to the term reemerging infections, which denotes “. . . some ‘old’ diseases, for example, tuberculosis or syphilis, that were renewed because of changed conditions in the chain host-agent-environment (Friis and Sellers, 2014). Beltz (2011) describes such emerging diseases as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Lyme disease, Respiratory distress syndrome, Lassa fever, Cholera and others. In most cases emerging infections are not caused by mutations in a pathogen (Beltz, 2011). Lashley (2007) states that they appear when an already existing pathogen gains access to new host populations (Lashley, 2007).
Among the main notable factors of their spread Friis and Sellers (2014) mention: Contact with rodent host during harvest, dissemination by infected rats, ecologic changes causing contact with rodents, faulty water purification, transoceanic shipping, urbanization, and blood transfusions and organ transplantation (Friis and Sellers, 2014)..
Currently, the major transfusion-transmitted emerging infections posing risk in the USA are all strains of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human T-lymphotropic virus I (HTLV-I), hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C (HCV). The majority of these are transmitted from the infected people during the period between infection and the appearance of organisms or antibodies in the blood.
In their book Friis and Sellers (2014) set before the fact that every year more and more efforts are used to ensure blood and organ safety, including sensitive screening tests; education and stringent screening, selection, and deferral procedures for donors; post donation product quarantine; a safety surveillance system; and donor tracing and notification when needed. Blood and organ safety checking level also increased with creating newer methods of testing such as by nucleic acid testing increase (Friis and Sellers, 2014).
One more dangerous and potential way of getting one of the emerging infections, which is described by Lederer (2008), is xenotransplantation, the use of tissues and organs for animal to human transplantation, poses a potential risk of the transfer of zoonoses from the animal donor not only to the human recipient but also to persons who come into professional or personal contact with him/ her (Lederer, 2008). Simmons et al. (1987) highlights the fact that the particular concern should have viruses, especially those that can cross species barriers e.g. porcine endogenous retroviruses (Simmons et al., 1987).
All of these issues are discussed in the U.S. Public Health Service guideline on infectious disease issues as well as at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to make human-to-human and animal-to-human transplantation a safer method of treatment.
References
Beltz, L.A. (2011). Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Guide to Diseases, Causative Agents, and Surveillance. John Wiley & Sons.
Friis, R. H., Sellers, T. A. (2014). Epidemiology for Public Health Practice. (5th edition), Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN 978-1-4496-6549-4
Lashley, F. R. (2007). Emerging Infectious Diseases: Trends and Issues, Second Edition. Springer Publishing Company.
Lederer, S.E. (2008). Flesh and Blood: Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in 20th Century America. Oxford University Press.
Simmons, R. G., Marine, S. K., Simmons, R. L. (1987). Gift of Life: The Effect of Organ Transplantation on Individual, Family, and Societal Dynamics. Transaction Publishers.
