“Well in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get somewhere else - if you ran very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.”

UNDERSTANDING AND CONTROLLING PESTS , PARASITES AND PATHOGENS

The Red Queen 's reply to Alice 's statement of running as fast as one can in to stay in the same place may be relevant to humankind 's goal of maintaining an infection-free environment through vigorous efforts in controlling emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that may be caused by pests , parasites and pathogens . It has long been thought of the infectious diseases have been controlled through the application of vaccines and antibiotics , yet in the last ten years , pests , parasites and pathogens have re-emerged

and these new strains were observed to be even harder to control and ultimately to eradicate because the new strains are generally antibiotic-resistant

Among the re-emerging infectious diseases that have been the focus of attention of healthcare professionals are the Ebola and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS ) viruses that have been spreading all through out the continent of Africa as well as other infectious diseases such as cholera , pulmonary syndrome caused by hantaviruses and influenza caused by new and stronger strains of the influenza virus . The hantavirus-caused pulmonary syndrome causes a failure of the respiratory system of a patient , which in turn results in death . It has been estimated that approximately half of the patients infected with the hantavirus die from symptoms associated with pulmonary syndrome Aside from re-emerging infectious diseases , there are also antibiotic-resistant infectious diseases that currently plague humankind . Antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis involves the transmission of hardy bacterial strains that are not affected by current antibiotics that are usually administered to patients diagnosed with tuberculosis Medical research has shown that antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis generally results in death when the patient is determined to be weaker than the average patient condition . In addition , it is easier for antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis bacteria to flourish among weaker patients . In the case of AIDS infections , the resistant viruses oftentimes transfer from one area to a new area and infect new individuals . It has been determined that these infections are zoonotic which means that they originate from animals which are in turn a result of modifications of the ecosystem . The spread of infectious diseases have also been attributed to man-made activities and alterations of the ecosystem such as excessive forestry and cultivation of land areas because these activities disturb the natural niches of the vectors such as small mammals such as rodents and arthropods such as mosquitoes . The transfer of these vectors to other areas results in a greater probability that these vectors will come in contact with humans . As the number of activities of humans has increased , the frequency of cases associated with emerging and re-emerging zoonotic infections has also heightened in number

The occurrence of infectious diseases and antibiotic-resistant pathogens usually results in the quick spread of the pathogens to large populations across the entire world . In the earlier days , diseases of this nature originated as a result of the exploratory efforts as well as trading expeditions . War efforts have also served as a factor that has spread infectious diseases . It has...