Editorial: Emerging and Re-emerging Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases

Abstract

The Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez stated in his last will, "la muerte no llega con la vejez, sino con el olvido" ("death does not come with old age, but with oblivion"). Indeed, how many deaths due to tropical diseases can be avoided? How can investment in these neglected diseases significantly change the course of the disease? Even in a macro vision, how could the socioeconomic condition of those affected by these diseases be changed to avoid transmission, morbidity, and mortality? We must rescue tropical and emerging global diseases from oblivion, and the rescue begins with us.