[Infectious diseases in the age of globalization]

The study was aimed to analyse effect of major globalization-related factors on clinical and epidemiological manifestations of infectious diseases. It is shown that they modify the nature of epidemic process influencing its constituent components and significantly accelerate development of infections. All the four major components of globalization, viz. economic, environmental, political, and demographic, are interrelated and influence not only the prevalence of diseases but also the possibility of their prevention. The global character of the threat dictates the necessity of combined approach to its management based on the norms and principles of international law regulating provision of medical services, human rights, environmental protection, trade, and other human activities. Epidemiological safety depends on political will of individual states, financial support of global and national infrastructures for monitoring all factors of the epidemiological process.