Emerging infectious diseases a challenge in disaster medicine

In recent decades more and more viruses have emerged from the natural pool of zoonotic viruses to invade animal and human populations. The SARS epidemic and the spread of H5N1 avian flu virus are two recent examples. The emergence of infectious diseases (EID) is a consequence of: (I) increase of the human population, (II) accumulation of people in chaotically growing third-world mega-cities, (III) increasing sociological and ecological changes, (IV) high and fast worldwide mobility of people, animals and goods and (V) rapid progress of globalization.