title: [The concept of emerging disease].
abstract: To avoid misinterpretations one should substitute the ambiguous notion of 'new disease' with 'emerging disease'. A disease can be classified emergent in at least five different historical situations; 1) it existed before it could be first identified but was overlooked from a medical point of view because it could not be conceptualized as a nosological entity; 2) it existed but was not noticed until a quantitative and/or qualitative change in its manifestations; 3) it did not exist in a particular region of the world before its introduction from other regions; 4) it never existed in a human population but only in an animal population; 5) it is completely new--the triggering germ and/or necessary environmental conditions did not exist prior to the first clinical manifestations. A series of historical examples illustrate this classification.
authors: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris, France.
authors: M D
authors: MD
authors: Grmek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000266:history*; D004813:Epidemiology / Q000266:history; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans
vernacular_title: Le concept de maladie émergente.