Synopses & Reviews
Todaya (TM)s mobility of large parts of the human population a whether related to commercial travel or to touristic activities a carries the risk of spreading infectious diseases. Both infected individuals and vectors of infectious agents are rapidly transported over sometimes huge geographic distances. In this special issue this situation is illustrated and analyzed in a series of articles written by experts in the field. Emphasis is placed on insect- and rodent-borne viral infections such as those caused by Dengue, Japanese encephalitis, sand fly fever and Lassa virus as well as by hepatitis viruses and HIV. The core part of the volume, however, deals with filovirus infections (Ebola, Marburg). It illustrates in detail the biological and epidemiological characteristics of these viruses and summarizes todaya (TM)s possibilities for prevention and, to some extent, also therapy. For all those interested in the epidemiology of travel related infections and eventually confronted with diagnosis and management of imported viral infections, the volume will be a valuable source of information. For the clinician it will provide guidance for selecting the appropriate diagnostic approach and a detailed description of necessary control measures will prove helpful to develop an effective scenario for the handling of patients infected by high hazard viruses.
Synopsis
Mobility oflarge parts of the human population, whether related to commercial necessity, touristic activities or to migration induced by war and social pressure, carried and carries the risk of spreading infections. Modem air travel effectively circumvents existing quarantine regulations as infected individuals thereby can reach almost every geographic location while stiIl in the incubation phase of the disease. Hence, infections previously restricted to distinet regions due to their strict association with non-human reservoirs or vectors can suddenly surface in non-endemic areas where lacking experience and technical means make clinical and laboratory diagnosis difficult. Excellent examples for such situations are many vector- or rodent-borne viruses but also hepatitis viruses, the human immunodeficiency virus and, last but not least, filoviruses. The following articles are based on papers presented at an international symposium on "Imported Virus Infections" heI d at the Max von Pettenkofer Institute, University ofMunich, Munich, Germany on March 31 to Aprill, 1995. They illustrate today's knowledge on the epidemiology, dynamics of spread, as weIl as the frequently limited possibilities of prevention and therapeutic treat- ment of associated disease. Special emphasis was placed on filovirus infections which, as if to highlight the topics of the symposium, reappeared and spread in Zaire in the first half of 1995. The symposium was dedicated to the memory of Friedrich Deinhardt M.D., virologist, professor and director of the Max von Pettenkofer Institute for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology from 1977 unt il he died on April 30, 1992.