Globalización y nuevas epidemias

Abstract

As emerging infectuous diseasses are defined the recent infections that have appeared or those infenctions that, although they have existed in the past, are now excessively prevalent in either their factor of incidence or in their geographical focal points. Global ecological changes, migratory waves, misuse of antibiotics, etcetera, are not only increasing the factors of prevalence of those deseasses but also contributing to the increased level of resistance of the viruses and bacterias, hence altering their genetic patterns. The seriousness of the problem resides in the fact that the majority of these new and/or re-emerging infections are appearing out of nowwhere and mutating to infect other populations and even causing new ilnesses. The capacity or adaptation of these bacterias and viruses is also so tremendous that they can go trough generational changes in extremely short periods of time, thus developing an enormous capacity of resistance. The intervention of man on his natural enviroment, climatic changes, migrations, urbanization and the application of new technologies on agricultural development an economy are all determinating factors of these new and emerging phenomenons linked to the health-sickness globalization process. On the other side, deforestation as a result of the destruction of forest and jungles to better respond to the production and consumption habitos of the industrialized countries, has entiled an ecological imbalance of magnitude in the fauna, flora and in the natural habitat of microbes. It clearly appears that, given the intervention of man as being the principal cause of ecological transformations, many of those contributing factors of the new epidemics are not only natural, but moreso anthropo-genetical. In the same manner that globalization entails transnationalization of societies; such elimination of barriers and frontiers also contributes to the evolution of “alien microbes" into universal microbes