Recommendations on Combating Infectious Diseases
In the past, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has repeatedly addressed the issue of infectious diseases in order to draw public and political attention to the special role of pathogens with respect to health. Here, we present recommendations on how research in the area of infectious diseases can make progress and health policy measures that are required to protect the population.

Scientists continue to discover new pathogens such as the SARS corona virus or new strains of the bird influenza virus, and bio-terrorism now poses an additional threat. Around 30 % of all fatalities world-wide are a result of infectious diseases, with a major proportion being accounted for by AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria and other infections that have long been known.New problems have arisen, too, including, in particular, a steadily increasing number of therapy-resistant bacteria and new pandemic influenza viruses.Frequently, people are only insufficiently aware of the threat arising from these diseases. This is why the Leopoldina regards increased efforts to combat infectious diseases as an urgent requirement, and in the following, it addresses both, politicians and the public at large with recommendations to provide special support for (1) health policy monitoring, (2) infrastructure, (3) research and (4) teaching and further education in this area.
The most important recommendations are:

(1) Extension of National Reference Centres and the corresponding structures in the area of animal diseases to cover the entire range of infectious agents among humans and animals; networking of monitoring systems in the medical and veterinary medicine sectors at national and international level.

(2) Swift implementation of the alarm plan for imported dangerous infections; extension of clinical centres for intensive medical care; setting up of furtherBSL3 laboratories, construction of high-security laboratories of the hazard group BSL4.

(3) Stepping up research above all on micro-organisms, viruses and prions causing particular health problems in man and animals; further development of new methods to examine micro-organisms; development of new animal models; further development of bio-informatics technologies and methods.

(4) Consistent implementation of the revised regulations on medical registration for medical doctors in infectiology; extension and internationalisation of graduate and postgraduate programmes for natural and medical scientists.