Trends and Considerations in Global Infectious Disease Drug Dev | Page 3

Over the past several decades, newly recognized

Figure 2. Overview

of Infectious Disease Occurrence 3, 4

infectious diseases have led to major epidemics
and pandemics -- such as the 2009 H1N1 influenza
(swine flu) pandemic, HIV/AIDS pandemic, bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease)
outbreak, and severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) in 2003. The increased occurrence of other
infectious diseases has been caused by the emergence
of multi-resistant bacteria, such as those caused by
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA),
extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), enteric Gram
negative bacteria and extensively drug-resistant (XDR)
tuberculosis, cholera, and dengue.4
During a typical year in the US, 30,000 to
50,000 people die from influenza virus
infection or its complications.5
In the situation of an influenza pandemic, such as the one that occurred in 2009, the number of deaths may be much higher. Each of these
aforementioned infections presents its own challenges to clinical development efforts for new therapeutics.
Changes in human demographics, behavior, and land use are contributing to new disease emergence by changing the transmission dynamics.
Environmental causes of disease spread include animal/insect-borne pathogens (swine influenza, avian influenza, malaria), airborne pathogens
(seasonal influenza, upper respiratory infections), skin-to-skin transmission, food- and water-borne infections, and transmission from body fluids
or contaminated objects. The majority of human emerging infectious diseases are of animal origin. The five or six emerging infectious diseases
occurring annually on average over the past eight decades have disproportionately emerged from perturbed ecological niches, especially those in
tropical areas with vector-borne enzootic diseases. Viral host switching has become an important research topic.4
Hospital infections have become increasingly common in the US, with five to ten percent of hospital patients developing nosocomial infections,6
and infection control is now a major focus of US hospitals. About 90,000 of these patients die each year as a result of a nosocomial infection.6

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