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Emerging bacterial pathogens: the past and beyond

M Vouga1, G Greub1

  • 1Center for Research on Intracellular Bacteria, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne and University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Clinical Microbiology and Infection : the Official Publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
|October 24, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Emerging bacterial diseases pose a significant public health threat, often originating from animals or water. Understanding their emergence requires integrating diagnostics, environmental factors, and pathogen evolution.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Public Health
  • Infectious Diseases

Background:

  • Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, particularly bacterial pathogens, represent a major global public health challenge.
  • Since the 1950s, medical communities have increasingly confronted these threats, necessitating a focused review of bacterial origins.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review emerging and reemerging bacterial infectious diseases.
  • To explore the factors contributing to their emergence.
  • To identify future challenges in managing these diseases.

Main Methods:

  • Identification of 26 major emerging and reemerging bacterial infectious diseases.
  • Analysis of disease origins (zoonotic or waterborne).
  • Review of contributing factors including diagnostic advancements, sociodemographic changes, environmental shifts, and pathogen virulence.

Main Results:

  • Most identified bacterial diseases are zoonoses or waterborne.
  • Key emergence factors include improved diagnostics (culture, molecular, mass spectrometry), increased human exposure due to societal/environmental changes, and the rise of virulent strains/opportunistic infections.
  • Defining clinical implications requires integrating microbiological, clinical, and epidemiological data with experimental models.

Conclusions:

  • Urgent international data collection and financial investment are needed.
  • A comprehensive understanding of the clinical relevance of waterborne and zoonotic emerging bacterial diseases is critical for public health preparedness.
Keywords:
Disease causationKoch postulatesemerging bacteriaemerging infectious diseasesintracellular bacteriazoonoses

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