COVID and Emerging Infectious Diseases

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Background

Over the last two years with the strain of coronavirus having a devastating effect on the world’s healthcare system and triggering a global "lockdown", one question that has emerged; What, or which infectious disease is going to hit us next?

Many infectious diseases prevalent in humans and animals are caused by pathogens that once emerged from other animal hosts. In addition to these established or re-emerging infections, new infectious diseases periodically emerge. In extreme cases they may lead to pandemics as we currently are seeing. The increased urbanization and globalization of the world order with faster connectivity and traveling has further in-creased the risk factors for emerging infections. Despite this, enormous progress has been made in the field of infectious disease in the last few decades. The number of deaths and severe infections because of diseases like Malaria, HIV, Ebola, Dengue, Yellow fever virus (YFV), Zika etc. have been significantly reduced and diseases like Polio are on the brink of eradication. In particular, the emergence of the devastating SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has revolutionized the field in an unprecedented way. A myriad of vaccine platforms and highly potent therapeutic approaches have been developed by government, industry, academic, and non-governmental organizations. However, the rapid and unparalleled spread of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, and the amount of toll that it has caused to the public health and global economy also underscores the urgent need to develop broadly cross-reactive, rapidly deployable, and scalable therapeutic platforms. Development of these novel therapeutic modalities also requires a strong emphasis on the functional and mechanistic understanding of how molecular components in a biological process related to emerging infectious diseases work together. Onset of the out-breaks of recent decades including but not limited to SARS-CoV-1, MERS, Ebola virus, Zika virus, Nipah virus, Yellow fever virus, Lassa virus and the ongoing ever devastating SARS-CoV-2 pandemic also highlight the urgent need to devise a future proof pandemic preparedness strategy and the demand for a fast and early response.

Science will surely bring us many life-saving drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics. However, there is no reason to think that these alone can overcome the threat of ever more frequent and deadly emergences of infectious diseases. Evidence suggests that SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 are only the latest examples of a deadly barrage of coming coronavirus and other emerging infectious agents. The COVID-19 pandemic is yet another reminder, added to the rapidly growing archive of historical reminders, that in a human-dominated world, in which our human activities represent aggressive, damaging, and un-balanced interactions with nature, we will increasingly provoke new disease emergences. We remain at risk for the foreseeable future. COVID-19 is among the most vivid wake-up calls in over a century. It should force us to begin to think in earnest and collectively about living in more thoughtful and creative harmony with nature, even as we plan for nature’s inevitable, and always unexpected, surprise.

Rapid onset of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and other recent viral outbreaks underscores the urgent need to develop future proof new generation therapeutic modalities including but not limited to vaccines, biologics, small molecule-based drugs etc. The goal of this edition is to present broad scientific, technological and conceptual advances in all the fundamental and translational aspects of emerging infectious diseases. This will increase our understanding of established and future pathogens and help us develop future proof therapeutic options. The collections aims to initially focus on the recent emergence of COVID-19 but have an open discussion on what could be the next emerging infectious disease. This could be based on Opinion/Perspectives from authors or on new data.

We welcome submissions focusing on, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Natural immunity vs vaccines/boosters in SARS COVID-19 variants in children and adults
• The genome structure, replication and pathogenesis of coronaviruses
• Challenges and role of Recombinant proteins vs mRNA vaccines against emerging and reemerging infectious diseases
• The short and long term implications of variants in COVID-19
• The logical general timeline behind the research and development of a vaccine for infectious diseases
• The cross transmission and (re) emergence of infectious viruses
• Advancements and role in structural biology in vaccines and host directed drug development

Keywords: Covid and emerging infectious diseases

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