Re-emergence of neuroinfectiology

Excerpt

Infections of the central nervous system (CNS) represented an area of major concern in the pre-antibiotic and pre-vaccination era. Following the wide-spead introduction of antibiotic therapy and the implementation of national vaccination programs, many infectious diseases appeared to be successfully contained, and the health threat posed by infectious pathogens seemed to belong to the past. However, in recent years the number of reported cases of infectious agents causing CNS infections in the form of emerging and re-emerging diseases has been increasing [9]. Among the most devastating infectious diseases of the CNS that plague today’s world are cerebral malaria, rabies, toxoplasmosis, bacterial meningitis, arbovirus encephalitis and human immunodeficiency virus-associated neurological diseases [4, 5, 9, 20‐22]. Viral and bacterial CNS diseases represent an important but relatively neglected area of medicine in developing countries [8]. Similarly, parasite-inflicted diseases of the CNS represent a major threat to public health in developing countries; this threat is also present in the Western world but the disease burden is less [4, 5]. Overall, the burden of infectious CNS diseases is reinforced by the fact that survivors may suffer from life-long lasting neurological and psychiatric complications [1, 15, 24, 25]. …