November 9, 2017
For immediate release
SEATTLE, Washington – Updated and standardized prevention and treatment protocols, and integration of effective services will help ensure continuity of effective care from diagnosis through treatment and follow up, and remain a central tool to reduce global poverty, according to new findings presented in Major Infectious Diseases – the latest volume of the Disease Control Priorities, 3rd Edition (DCP3) series. With a focus on infectious disease control in low and middle-income countries, this publication provides up-to-date analysis of the burden of infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria and other febrile illnesses, hepatitis, and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The editors and authors also present updated cost-effectiveness estimates for a major set of interventions to address these diseases across a variety of delivery platforms.
While much focus in global health in the last decade has increasingly turned to non-communicable diseases, the significant burden from infectious diseases remains. This volume emphasizes the importance of not slowing effort or diverting attention from controlling the major infectious diseases as more robust and efficient technologies for diagnosis and treatment are developed and implemented.
Professor Prabhat Jha, volume editor and Director of the Centre for Global Health Research at the University of Toronto, comments, “We’ve made remarkable progress in the last few decades against the leading infectious diseases, mostly from better technologies that are applied widely. Today, the burdens persist mostly among the global poor, so continued reductions in infectious diseases are central to achieving global targets for disease and poverty reduction.”
In addition to emphasizing priority interventions for controlling infectious diseases, Dr. King Holmes, volume lead editor and Director of Research and Faculty Development at the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health, hopes that this volume will also bring much needed attention to the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance. “The combination of a high incidence of infectious diseases and an increasing use of antimicrobial agents has led to the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance, with the largest burden falling on low-income settings”, says Holmes. “This poses serious global health concerns for many infectious diseases we once believed to be readily treatable.”
The DCP3 series is comprised of nine individual volumes that are being published by the World Bank Group. Major Infectious Diseases is now available open access on the World Bank’s Open Knowledge Repository. For more information or to download chapters, visit the DCP3 website and follow DCP3 on Twitter using @DCPthree and #DCP3.
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