Communicable Diseases in the Mediterranean Region

Communicable diseases still pose a health hazard and are a major cause of death in many parts of the world. Tuberculosis is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide with an annual burden of 1.7 million. Global deaths in 2016 for other communicable diseases included 1.34 million from hepatitis; 1.0 million from HIV-related causes; and almost half a million from malaria. Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like polio, measles, rubella and other life-threatening diseases also pose a significant threat to various communities around the world. In this paper, we shed some light on the epidemiology of communicable diseases in the Mediterranean Region and conclude that socioeconomic differences between the north and the south Mediterranean lead to differences in the epidemiology of communicable diseases.