Apocalyptic Virus: Emerging Infections Silently Killing the ERA

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases have had a negative impact on the world. Fighting these diseases claimed the lives of nearly 14 million people. These emerging infectious diseases have the potential to cause epidemics and pandemics. History itself has shown that viruses cause a lot of pandemics and caused a lot of destruction. These infectious agents will always be after humans to cause diseases. We can, however, thwart them with scientific techniques. WHO proposed the names of ten potential viruses that could cause the next outbreak and pandemic in 2015. All of these viruses have occurred in the last two decades and have caused widespread devastation. Some are still infecting humans. In order to detect and respond to these infectious agents, surveillance is critical. The use of molecular technologies, phylogenetic and phylogeographic analysis has demonstrated that we can prevent outbreaks by forecasting them. Genomic epidemiology is being used for the development of interventions and limiting the spread of these infectious diseases. A response strategy has been proposed to affected countries by the World Health Organization and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. In the event of an emergency outbreak, the GOARN team must arrive in those countries within 24 hours. There are some control measures in place to prevent the spread of existing outbreaks as well as the occurrence of future outbreaks. This paper aims to convey the significance of awareness and vigilance to the readers so that they can contribute their part in preventing outbreaks.