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. 2004 Nov;10(11):1177-85.
doi: 10.1038/nm1129.

From Pasteur to genomics: progress and challenges in infectious diseases

Rino Rappuoli  1
Affiliations

From Pasteur to genomics: progress and challenges in infectious diseases

Rino Rappuoli. Nat Med. 2004 Nov.

Abstract

Over the past decade, microbiology and infectious disease research have undergone the most profound revolution since the times of Pasteur. Genomic sequencing has revealed the much-awaited blueprint of most pathogens. Screening blood for the nucleic acids of infectious agents has blunted the spread of pathogens by transfusion, the field of antiviral therapeutics has exploded and technologies for the development of novel and safer vaccines have become available. The quantum jump in our ability to detect, prevent and treat infectious diseases resulting from improved technologies and genomics was moderated during this period by the greatest emergence of new infectious agents ever recorded and a worrisome increase in resistance to existing therapies. Dozens of new infectious diseases are expected to emerge in the coming decades. Controlling these diseases will require a better understanding of the worldwide threat and economic burden of infectious diseases and a global agenda.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author is an employee of Chiron Corporation.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Major changes in infectious diseases during the last decade: the diseases that have been decreasing are shown on the left; the ones that emerged are in the center; those that continued without any change to their trend are shown on the right.
WW represents wordwide. Websites where information for each disease is available are reported in Box 1. In HIV USpanel, new cases per year are shown in blue and total infected population is shown in green. In the bioterrorism panel, publications in PubMed are shown in blue, cases in green and deaths in red.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Type of vaccines licensed in the year 2000 and type of vaccines predicted to be available in the year 2020.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Antivirals approved by FDA in 1990 and 2004.
The area is proportional to the number of drugs approved: a total of four in 1990 and 40 in 2004.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Risk of infection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) per unit of blood transfusion during the last twenty years.
The figure is revised from reference .
Figure 5
Figure 5
Most emerging diseases are of animal origin.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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