ABSTRACT
The threat of infectious diseases extend to human populations and communities, as well as to non-human ones; but it is critical for the formers’ survival. Once believed to be an ‘endangered threat’, it has rebounded with a vengeance, through massive and multiple epidemics, supposedly of spontaneous causality. The emergence of pathogens better adapted in terms of infection, of dissemination and, last but not least, of resistance to the diverse countermeasures are- unequally- causal for the expected aggravation of the pathogen threat. Many conditions, some of human agency and others not so much so, result in either benign microorganisms becoming pathogenic in an opportunistic fashion, or discovering new and highly pathogenic ones. The latter may appear suddenly or happen through progressive evolutionary events, and the implications may vary – from the need for a batter antimicrobial treatment, to the inability to even detect, let alone identify, such emerging agents, especially if engineered by synthetic biology approaches to legitimate or malevolent specifications and released on purpose. Still, assisted by human irresponsibility, Nature seems perfectly capable to surprise us nastily in many ways.
