Вопросы терминологии и систематизации новых инфекций

Abstract

The article is controversial and designed to give not only a certain holistic view of new infections occurring in the last 75 years, but also to initiate a discussion on this issue. The authors examine the issues of terminology, periodization and classification of new infections on the base of extensive factual material (the data about 208 new infections) and the works of Russian and foreign authors, in accordance with theoretic and practical fundamentals of modern epidemiology. While considering various terms and their definitions, the differences in the interpretations and understanding of the newness of the infections, possessing all the attributes of infectious diseases nosology, have been revealed. The authors have developed the following approaches to the systematization of the data on new infections: classification of new infections from a position of a “newness” of the infection; classification of new infections by the ways of their identifying; grouping the new infections on the base of a variety of epidemiological evidences; classification of the pathogens of new infections by their newness and the ways of their emergence; classification of the factors affecting the appearance of new infections. Based on the length of the generation life and a conventional change of generations as the new infections have appeared for the period from 1950, they are defined as the infections of 3 generations: new infections of “ancestors’ generation”, identified in the period of 1950-1975 (more than 100 nosologic forms); new infections of “parents" generation”, identified in 1976-2000 (approximately 90 diseases); new infections of “children’s generation”, identified in 2001-2010 and those that will be identified until 2025 (15 nosologies for the time being). The proposed systematization allows one to structure already identified new infections, to position the new infections and new pathogens that may arise in the future, to trace the evolutionary paths of each infection and to realize a forecast.