Lack of surveillance Lack of surveillance and limited availability of appropriate diagnostic tests have made it difficult to prevent outbreaks. Global travel Emerging infectious disease threats from abroad are increasing due to the frequency of travel. Cholera has recently returned to the western hemisphere in epidemic proportions. Antimicrobial resistance as a factor in the emergence of infectious disease warrants considerable emphasis. Antibiotics that once seemed invincible are losing their effectiveness for a wide range of community acquired infections.
Pneumococcal infections are a leading cause of otitis media, pneumonia and meningitis in children.
There has been an alarming increase in pneumococcal antibiotic resistance thought to be partly due to prescribing antibiotics without proper indications, prescribing the wrong drug or wrong dose or having poor patient compliance with treatment regimens. Emerging infectious diseases are diseases of infectious origins whose incidence in humans has increased within the past two decades or threatens to increase in the near future. The following are some of the most recently described emerging infectious diseases affecting children. The reason for this sparing of children is thought to be due in part to their family members deliberately shielding them from exposure to sick and dying relatives. The adult population affected were considered to be immunologically naive without significant protective antibody.