Preventing is better than curing certainly rings true for infectious diseases. This question addresses both the determination of the nature of an infectious disease and its treatment. How complicated is the diagnosis of infectious diseases and what roles do GPs and specialists play in this process? Vaccination is a highly effective way to prevent infectious diseases. With vaccines, we have contained large and serious epidemics such as smallpox, cholera and diphtheria. However, much research is still needed on diseases that cannot yet be vaccinated against. Think of HIV, malaria, tuberculosis or hepatitis C. In addition, in recent years it has become increasingly apparent that conditions other than infectious diseases can also be treated or prevented by vaccination. For instance, vaccines seem to have the potential to eventually be useful in personalised treatments for cancer patients. In fact, a vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer is already in use. There is also speculation that vaccination could help against smoking addiction, diabetes or dementia. In severe autoimmune diseases, autologous stem cell transplantation is sometimes used. A lot of research still needs to be done in that area.
Connecting character
Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. The diseases are transmitted by humans or animals. An immune disorder, also called immune deficiency, occurs when an infection is more severe than normal or is caused by an unusual pathogen. Diagnostic testing is commonly used in the study of immune disorders. This research focuses on the characterisation of the disorder, its genetic causes and concomitant disease symptoms. The various research expertise areas that play a role here include clinical infectiology, immunology, infection biology, medical microbiology, and virology. These areas of expertise directly illustrate the diversity and broad scope of infectious disease research, which is fundamental, translational and clinically applied in nature. In the Netherlands, leading research on vaccination is conducted, especially in the fundamental field, by major university centres but also by companies that have their research conducted in the Netherlands.
