About this Research Topic

Background

Preparedness for emergence and resurgence of potentially pandemic diseases in tropical regions, including the Amazon and African Forests, that should be a global priority, have received very low attention and insufficient investments, affecting particularly the poorest populations worldwide. A collaborative, multisectoral and interdisciplinary One Health approach is crucial to deal with complex eco-social and epidemiological issues related to zoonotic diseases resulting in outbreaks and pandemics. The majority of emerging infectious diseases outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have been caused by zoonotic viruses and bacteria. A good example is HIV/AIDS - a pandemic originated in Congo, Africa, from the first sustained cross-species transmission of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) from nonhuman primate into a human.

The goals of our research publication are:

1. To discuss eco-social and epidemiological issues related to potentially pandemic zoonotic diseases, which account for 60% of epidemics worldwide, and preparedness for a possible future disease X in the tropics.

2. To identify breakthroughs in vaccine innovation for leading emerging neglected diseases in the tropics, such as Dengue (Americas and Africa), Zika (Brazil), Chikungunya (Brazil, Africa) and Yellow Fever (Brazil, and other Central and South American countries) and also related to other emerging and resurgent pathogens in tropical areas, such as Ebola (sub-Saharan Africa), Lassa Fever (West Africa), Marburg (Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania), Mayaro (Trinidad Tobago, Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador); Oropouche (Brazil, Peru and Caribbean countries).

3. To determine the reasons for the persistence of the main gaps in surveillance and vaccine development and production for these diseases.

4. To design strategies to accelerate translation to final vaccine and drug products and vaccine preparedness. Recent research has identified major translational gaps for Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika vaccines, with few of them still under active development and prospect to reach the final stages of development. Evidence also indicates that, in spite of these constraints, innovative platforms such as RNA-based vaccines are increasingly being used to prevent and treat these diseases. We aim in this article collection to further explore the reasons for persistence of these gaps and design innovative strategies to accelerate preparedness and vaccine translation. A better understanding of these gaps and issues related to vaccine development and production will provide important insights into prospects for vaccine preparedness, surveillance and disease control. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development of innovative mRNA vaccines and provided important lessons that could be incorporated into the development of novel vaccines for these emerging neglected diseases.

This Research Topic therefore invites articles that explore:

- Preparedness for disease X in the tropics
- The different surveillance systems (epidemiological, entomological, antigenic) and strategies for their integration
- Bottlenecks and translational issues related to vaccine and drug innovation
- Development, production and access for emerging diseases in tropical regions of the globe

The discussion of interconnected issues, such as vaccine adjuvants, clinical research, technological transfer to build local manufacturing capacity of vaccines and drugs at low cost will be as well welcome and crucial to accelerate translation, development and production of these critical products.

Keywords: One Health, Emerging Diseases, Disease X, Preparedness, Surveillance, Vaccines, Drugs

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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