The coincidence of broad-scale environmental changes and the emergence of infectious diseases may point to underlying and predictable ecological relationships. Yet both basic and applied research in infectious disease ecology have been largely piecemeal, said Scheiner.
Potential benefits of the EID program include development of disease transmission theory; improved understanding of unintended health effects of development projects; increased capacity to forecast outbreaks; and improved understanding of how diseases emerge and re-emerge.
Previous research looked at diseases only after they had reached humans, or only at non-human animals, said EID program directors at NSF and NIH's Fogarty International Center. The EID program links those different components to produce a comprehensive understanding of disease transmission, said Joshua Rosenthal, NIH program director for EID.
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Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation
27-Oct-2006