Epidemics on a global scale and in Brazil

Abstract

Epidemics must not be seen as a special kind of disease but as part of a complex process of distribution of pathologies over time and space. Among the different existing disease classifications, the ICD, currently in its 10th edition, is the official one. The control charts being employed by the health system allow estimating the stage of development, endemic or epidemic, of diseases, especially those subject to worldwide control, the quarantinable diseases. The concept outbreak should be understood as a signal for the concentration of episodes worth being studied in depth. The most important communicable diseases in the developing world, the so-called neglected diseases, deserve special attention from the research funding agencies for not ranging among the priorities of the pharmaceutical industry. In Brazil, the agenda of priorities in health research includes various diseases of this nature, which have been contemplated in calls for projects launched by the National research Council and by the Ministry of Health.