emerging infectious disease


emerging infectious disease

Any previously unknown communicable illness or any previously controlled contagion whose incidence and prevalence are suddenly rising. In recent years, some emerging (and re-emerging) infections have been bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), Ebola hemorrhagic fever, cholera, plague, hemolytic uremic syndrome caused by Escherichia coli 0157:H7, drug-resistant strains of enterococcus, the human immunodeficiency virus, SARS, and antibiotic-resistant organisms, among many others.