Viral Genomics: Implications for the Understanding and Control of Emerging Viral Diseases

In recent decades, many infectious diseases have significantly increased in incidence and/or geographic range, in some cases impacting heavily on human, animal or plant populations. Some of these ‘emerging infectious diseases’ are associated with pathogens that have appeared in populations for the first time as a result of cross-species transmission (e.g. human immunodeficiency virus—acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)), while others were previously known but are rapidly increasing in incidence or geographic range as a result of underlying epidemiological changes (e.g. multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, dengue, West Nile encephalitis, foot and mouth disease, cassava mosaic disease). The latter include prominent diseases as tuberculosis, malaria and yellow fever that were once on the decline but are now ‘re-emerging diseases’.