news and notes

GLOBAL CHANGE & HUMAN HEALTH, VOLUME 1, NO. 2 (2000)173© Kluwer Academic Publishers

Historically, infectious diseases have had a profound effect on human populations, including our evolution, population dynamics, distribution, and cultural devel-opment. Despite recent advances in medical science, infectious diseases continue to severely affl ict human populations throughout much of the world. Predic-tions that infectious diseases would be eliminated as a major threat to human health have never come to pass, and many are now resurgent or newly emerging. ‘Resurgent’ and ‘emerging’ diseases derive from micro-bial infections that have newly appeared in a population, or have existed previously but are rapidly increasing in severity, incidence or geographic range.

Understanding the dynamics of these emerging infec-tious diseases is critical to reducing their morbidity and mortality, developing effective prevention and treat-ment strategies, establishing public health policy related to the threats they represent, and making decisions on where and how to use limited resources in the fi ght against these diseases. Analysis of the processes leading to the development of these diseases is important to determine what factors can be manipulated to reduce their impact.

The aim of the book series is to provide a platform for research, analysis, and policy development related to Resurgent and Emerging Infectious Diseases. The content of the series will address the major factors in disease emergence, including the impact of migration patterns and modern transport, development of anti-

microbial resistance, evolution of pathogen virulence, economic development and changing transmission risk, poverty and unequal access to resources, anthropo-genic environmental change, and changes in disease pat-terns related to global climate change. The series will also address diagnostic issues, such as how to deal with previously unfamiliar agents, or the treatment of resist-ant or soon-to-be resistant strains, particularly in hos-pital settings. Furthermore, the discussion of concep-tual and methodological issues such as mathematical modeling of the epidemiology of emerging infectious, spatial statistical methods, and issues related to com-plexity and uncertainty, will be encouraged.

The series will therefore consist of monographs, editorial volumes, and proceeding of workshops related to a specifi c emerging disease, causes of disease emer-gence, and/or methods and concepts to study them. Typescripts for volumes in the Series shall yield approx-imately 200-500 printed pages, each of about 350 words. Proposals for a book in this Series can be sent to the series editors[1]. Please include a summary of the book, an indication of the chapters you would like to include, and a sample chapter (when available).

New Book Series

Resurgent and emerging infectious diseases:disease ecology and evolution in the twenty-fi rst century

[1] Attn: Dr. P. Martens/REID book series International Centre for Integrative Studies Maastricht University PO Box 616 6200 MD Maastricht The Netherlands Tel +31-43-3883555 Fax +31-43-3884916 email p.martens@icis.unimaas.nl

Attn: Dr. M.L. Wilson,Associate ProfessorDepartments of Biology and EpidemiologyThe University of MichiganAnn Arbor, Michigan 48109, USAtel: +1-734-7632103fax: +1734-647-0884mail: wilsonml@umich.edu

Publisher Kluwer Academic Publishers

Series Editors Pim Martens & Mark L. Wilson

Advisory Board Cathrien Bruggeman (Maastricht University, the Netherlands) Andy Dobson (Princeton University, USA) Duane Gubler (CDC, USA) Richard Levins (Harvard University, USA) Livingstone Luboobi (Makerere University, Uganda) Joshua Rosenthal (NIH, USA) Robert Shope (University of Texas, USA)