| The human race has faced the threat from infectious disease since the beginning of time with pathogens and humans coexisting in nature and sharing the same environment. This coexistence has generally been peaceful and beneficial, however it has also caused great harm to humans when pathogens ravaged the globe, wreaking havoc on human populations. Even though humankind's efforts to combat disease pathogens and protect itself from them has progressively advanced to the point where there has been improvement in life expectancies, and morbidity from historically deadly infectious diseases has declined, today's population faces a current and growing threat from infectious disease. Infectious diseases that were once thought to have been fully contained to a specific region, or controlled to a point where they no longer posed a threat to humans, have recently undergone a recrudescence. This is due to factors such as human demographics and behavior, technology and industry, economic development and land use, international travel and commerce, microbial adaptation, degradation of public health measures, increased international commerce in food products, and the effects of climate change. Additionally, there is a new and looming threat from the potential, intentional use of disease pathogens to kill or incapacitate one's enemies. The threat from BioTerrorism is a very real and growing threat. |
