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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 34(4)

Diagnostics into the future

Theo P Sloots A , Cheryl Bletchly B and Mark Krockenberger C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Queensland Paediatric Infectious Diseases Laboratory
Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute
Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service
Herston Road
Herston, Qld 4029, Australia. Tel: +61 7 3636 8833
Fax: +61 7 3636 1401
Email: t.sloots@uq.edu.au

B Health Services Support Agency, Department of Health
Herston, Qld 4029, Australia. Tel: +61 7 3647 8053
Fax: +61 7 3646 2083
Email: Cheryl Bletchly@health.qld.gov.au

C Veterinary Pathology
Faculty of Veterinary Science
The University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW, Australia. Tel: +61 2 9351 2023
Fax: +61 2 9351 7421
Email: mark.krockenberger@sydney.edu.au

Microbiology Australia 34(4) 167-169 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA13056
Published: 31 October 2013

Abstract

This edition of Microbiology Australia is dedicated to the issue of emerging technology in diagnostics and its suitability to the response to emerging animal and human disease. It is fittingly entitled ‘Diagnostics into the future'. There is valid argument that the current pattern of infectious diseases is not historically unprecedented1 and has major driving forces of human population translocation, transhumance, exposure of naïve populations, increasing contact with wildlife and intensive agriculture1–4. However, what is clear is that emergence and re-emergence of diseases globally requires rapid responses built on sophisticated epidemiological understandings of the disease in question. Increasingly, understanding of the complex webs from which disease emerges is built on the continual emergence of new diagnostic methodologies1. There are numerous examples of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases with complex epidemiological bases. It is estimated that 58% of human pathogens are zoonoses and that 73% of emerging diseases of people are zoonoses or have a distinct link to animal disease2. Rapid identification of causative agents and subsequent exhaustive epidemiological investigation are our best weapons in responding to these emerging diseases1. They allow a rational and targeted approach to disease control and prevention in the face of hitherto unknown disease. Emerging technology and innovative application of existing technology streamline the processes and allow researchers unprecedented rapidity and accuracy of investigation.


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