Infectious diseases have a specific, ethiological cause, e.g. a microbe such as tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, most people exposed to TB does not develop the disease. What determines this may be poverty, weakening of the person by other diseases or smoking and alcohol. So-called life-style diseases are (also) determined by the way you live, and include prevalent non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases, but besides of risk factors such as smoking and drinking or over-eating, the living conditions matter equally and sometimes more. The environment, climate changes, urbanization, socio-economic factors all impact health and disease. When an individual grows older, patterns of his/her diseases changes: the same applies when a society grows ‘older’.

Previously infectious diseases previously caused the majority of ill-health and premature death globally, but in high- and middle-income countries during the 20.th century infectious diseases – with the exception of HIV – declined. Introduction of hygiene and discovery of microbes and later vaccines an antibiotics contributed to the decline, but changing living conditions with better housing, nutrition, water and sanitation were the main drivers of infectious diseases’ decline.

This presentation provides an introduction to infectious diseases like tuberculosis, vector-borne diseases, puerperal sepsis, streptococcus septicemia, etc. and how these diseases have affected global health over the last two centuries and decades.

In this presentation the achievement regarding the 8 millennium goals (MDG), set by the United Nation’s member states to be reached by 2015 are reviewed, with emphasis on Infectious diseases, such as HIV, TB malaria and other vector-borne diseases, including Chagas’ disease and African trypanosomiasis, the latter belong to the ‘neglected tropical diseases’. What made it happen and why (not) is discussed.

In this presentation the global burden of diseases – deaths as well as disabilities – jointly named DALYs – is presented and differences and similarities between lo-, middle-, and high-income countries presently and over time are presented. The strict division between non-communicable and communicable (infectious) diseases is also challenged, and propositions on how to manage them jointly are given. The double burden of NCD+overnutrition and CD+undernutrition in societies in fast transition is presented. The present vs. the expected global burden of diseases by the year 2030 are also introduced.

By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases
Professor Tehmina Mustafa, CIH, Haukeland University Hospital, University of Bergen

Mustafa began by pointing out that the UN Millennium Development Goals, which preceded the SDGs (Goal 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES), had only highlighted a few global communicable diseases. The SDGs continue to address the challenges of communicable disease epidemics, but have a widened focus to include a number of other important diseases. Also diseases that are not only pathogen caused.

Mustafa underlined that communicable disease epidemics highlight other global issues such as social injustice and social inequality. The years of life lost to these diseases is much higher in “hot-spots”, generally located in low- and middle-income countries.

According to Mustafa, the approaches included in the SDGs are more integrated than those of the MDGs and will be better able to lead to research directions that will help to alleviate the health and economic implications of communicable disease outbreaks.