Emerging and threatening infectious diseases

The unpredictable appearance of new infectious diseases has been recognized as one of the emerging threats to human society. It has been made clear historically and scientifically that infectious diseases, which have been emerging over millennia, are driven by numerous factors. In spite of extraordinary advances in diagnostic-, therapeutic- and vaccine-related research, emerging threats cease to be under control. The ease of world travel and increased global interdependence have added layers of complexity to containing these infectious diseases that affect not only the health but also the economic stability of societies. Though there is a lack of exact figures, emerging and threatening infectious diseases constitute a substantial fraction of all consequential human infections. Coordinated efforts are therefore required for detailed study on the infectious diseases that pose a real challenge to the human society. In this special issue, we attempt to review and group together the computational and functional genomics approaches to the contemporary researches on Ebola, influenza, malaria, hepatitis C (HCV) and other related infectious diseases.