Infectious Disease: annoying or life threatening?
By Linda on Feb 12, 2011 in Infections | comments(0)
Excerpt:
Infectious diseases can affect the previously healthy adolescent as well as
severely immuno-compromised intensive care unit patients. The effects may be
merely annoying, but in many cases they can become life-threatening. The
immediate impact of infectious diseases on everyday life can be seen with
Helicobacter pylori, which infects more than 50% of the global population,
or Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes a major tick-borne disease in Europe
and America. On the other hand, in less-developed countries, infections
causing diarrhea are still among the most important causes of death –
especially in children. Research in Medical Microbiology ranges from
attempts to better understand the physiology and ecology of the causative
agents to epidemiological typing of clinical isolates. It covers the mutual
interactions of pathogenic microbes as well as the interplay between
microorganism and host. Among the most pressing problems in medical
microbiology is the emerging of antibiotic resistances. In recent years,
both Gram-positive bacteria – with the first description of vancomycin
resistant Staphylococcus aureus – as well as Gram-negative species – e.g.
with the emergence of extended spectrum beta-lactamases – have seen new and
dramatic occurrences of resistance.
Consequently, the detection and characterization of new antimicrobial
compounds is, more than ever, an important task. All these topics are
covered by the research articles compiled in this Special Issue of the
Journal of Basic Microbiology. Further, the publication of this Special
Issue should underline the importance of “Basic Microbiology” for “Medical
Microbiology”: The sometimes existing gap between basic research and
application needs to be bridged urgently and in a time-saving manner as
often as possible. We are convinced that only combined efforts of experts in
both areas will allow us to tackle future’s problems in infectious diseases
efficiently ((c) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim).
