Commentary: How useful is 'burden of disease' to set public health priorities for infectious diseases?
For many infectious diseases, a low burden of disease does not equate to reduced potential public health importance. Many zoonotic infectious diseases have the potential for human-to-human transmission with potentially devastating consequences as currently seen with Ebola. Policymakers should not be lulled into thinking that the best use of resources is to allocate them only to the most obvious current problems.
Department of Epidemiology (Rm 3045), Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
Ruth
R
Berkelman
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA.
James
J
LeDuc
D000818:Animals; D003141:Communicable Diseases; D006292:Health Priorities; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D015047:Zoonoses