Infection Ecology & Epidemiology aims to be a truly international forum to stimulate inter-disciplinary collaborations dealing with a range of subjects from the plethora of infections in humans, over diseases that have implications for wildlife ecology, to advanced virology and bacteriology. The journal specifically welcomes studies from the developing world, and studies in which researchers from multiple medical and ecological disciplines collaborate to increase our knowledge of the emergence, spread, and effect of new and re-emerging infectious diseases in humans, domestic animals, and wildlife. The journal's main areas of interest include, but are not limited to, zoonotic microorganisms, vector-borne infections, gastrointestinal pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, and microorganisms in a changing environment.
Think of the Earth's history as spanning 24 hours. After the ‘Big Bang’, the first bacteria evolved at around 3 a.m., the first virus a few minutes later. The dinosaurs ruled the Earth at 9 p.m. The time humans became a separate species corresponds to about 3 seconds before midnight. In those 3 seconds, we evolved from hunters and gatherers to today's farmers and urban creatures. During our evolution, we have constantly encountered, and eventually became symbiotic with, microorganisms, interactions that created what we are today. What is a human being? Given that our bodies consist of bacteria that outnumber our own cells by more than 100 times and of viruses that outnumber our cells 1,000-fold, we are bacterio- and virospheres that are in constant interaction with our own cells and the environment, to sculpt us as humans.
When we became farmers about 12,000 years ago, we received, in addition to milk, meat, wool, and eggs, a gift we had not asked for - microorganisms from the ‘outside’, with the potential to cause outbreaks, epidemics and, as the ultimate consequence, pandemics. The introduction of antibiotics was a true revolution. However, the time span within which we have used antibiotics is barely measurable. In one generation we have developed antibiotics but are also close to conclusively disarming one of our most important weapons for good health because of promiscuous use of these within health care, and domestic animal and fish farming as well due to sewage systems that are incapable of destroying these biologically active substances.
During the last century the frontiers of infection have been dramatically expanded. A combination of public health measures, vaccines, and antibiotics has led to a decline in traditional contagious diseases. The challenge of infection is quite unlike any other discipline in medicine as it goes beyond the boundaries of knowledge about mankind, requiring a broad perspective on humans in relation to nature, insight into the biology of the microorganism, a deep understanding of host parasite interactions, as well as a humanistic approach to the individual patient. This is because most human emerging infections are zoonotic, meaning that the microorganism occurs mainly in animals but has the capacity to infect several species and ultimately, humans. Today, several research groups approach this challenge as a plethora or wide spectrum, with the individual patient at one end and infectious diseases in a changing world at the other.
Combating emerging infections requires an approach whereby researchers take into account the ‘One Health’ perspective. In the spring of 2010 a meeting of researchers from across Sweden with a primary focus on zoonotic infections convened. The aim of the meeting was to finally tear down the walls that existed between institutions, between government agencies and independent researchers, and instead build bridges of collaboration. The meeting resulted in the creation of the Infection Ecology and Epidemiology (IEE) network. IEE was started to stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations with the potential to increase knowledge of the emergence, spread, and effects of infectious disease in humans, domestic animals, and wildlife by providing a platform upon which researchers from multiple medical and ecological disciplines can interact and create synergies.
Cycles in nature can be linked to form a whole that is the ecological basis for existence. Recently, attention has increasingly been directed towards threats to this balance as a result of our growing human population, monocultures of life stock, and diminishing biodiversity. We live in societies with an extreme density of species; humans, domestic animals, and wild animals exist in close proximity and in relation to a surrounding environment that is constantly experiencing a loss of biological diversity. These new ecological systems are melting pots for the emergence of new diseases and a renaissance of earlier detected diseases. Today, infections are still a major reason for morbidity and mortality in humans and with a growing human population, growing numbers of domesticated animals (the chicken, numbering 25 billion, is the most common bird, and cattle, sheep, and pigs have also become more common than ever before with one billion members of each species), and with a decline in biodiversity the introduction or reintroduction of pathogens is inevitable. We have created explosive melting pots in which new and old infections can emerge or re-emerge.
In recent years it has become increasingly clear that cooperation between different disciplines is essential if we are to identify and combat future zoonotic infections. The SARS outbreak is a good reminder of this. For the first time, researchers from all over the world altruistically collaborated to identify the virus and to take appropriate measures to contain its outbreak. Further, we live in a globalised world. Thanks to the Internet we have almost direct contact with the fish farmer in Thailand experiencing an outbreak of fish death on his farm, as well as with the physician treating an unknown pneumonia in a Dutch patient. ProMed is the equipment, which will be even more important in the future, reporting emergence and re-emergence of potential dangerous pathogens in humans, domestic animals, and wildlife.
It is clear that on one side of the coin we see global warming, excessive carbon dioxide emissions, the destruction of nature, and unjust distribution of food and resources. If we flip the coin, the other side exhibits emerging and re-emerging infections. The coin itself represents the population explosion. When I grew up in the 1970s there were two things we learned in school to be afraid of. The first was the ‘big bomb’. Security measures included hiding under our benches, which in fact would only have delayed our fates by a millisecond! The other element of fear was the human population explosion. I still remember when my teacher entered our class room and with a trembling voice announced that this was the day, according to the WHO, when the human population exceeded three billion individuals. Our teacher's question was simple: what will happen to the tigers, the gorillas, and the whales in the ocean? Today we are approaching seven billion humans on Earth. Concerns over the extinction of tigers, whales, and large primates are more or less cosmetic. From an evolutionary perspective, we have never been so many. We are actually the second most common mammal on Earth. Only the rat is more common. The little jungle hen strolling around in small family groups in South East Asian jungles some 5,000 years ago has become the most common bird on Earth today with our help.
For those of us who conduct research at the intersection between human medicine, veterinary medicine, and ecology it is fairly easy to communicate our findings to a wide audience. The general public demonstrates a great deal of understanding about the different topics that highlight specific problems. However, it is much more difficult to publish our findings in scientific journals. Even if a journal's intention is to promote interdisciplinary and collaborative studies, it is not unusual for a manuscript to be rejected and returned with comments such as, ‘the results are interesting, but fit better in a medical or a veterinary journal’. With the launch of Infection Ecology & Epidemiology it is our ambition to do away with this mantra. We have created a journal whose scope specifically encompasses interdisciplinary studies, which seeks to publish ‘under the same roof’ research results from the fields of human medicine, veterinary medicine, and ecology. In addition, for maximum global dissemination we also decided to make the journal freely available online so as not to lock up this extremely important research and reserve it for only those who can afford to pay a subscription.
Infection Ecology & Epidemiology is affiliated with the IEE network in Uppsala, Sweden and published by Co-Action Publishing. As one of the first Open Access journals in this multidisciplinary field, it aspires to become a first-option source of information on infectious disease ecology and epidemiology. Therefore, do not hesitate to submit your studies. We will process them swiftly and, if they hold the required quality, publish them online for anybody to read.
Björn Olsen, MD, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Section of Infectious Diseases
Department of Medical Sciences
Uppsala University
SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden