About this Site

Welcome to Emerging Infections!

We invite you to visit us as often as you want to learn and explore the latest information on many different infectious diseases that are either newly emerging (or re-emerging) globally and within the US. The goal of the website is to provide all critical information in one place.

Navigating the Site

We use the practical definition of emerging infections that is used by the editors of the Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These pathogens can be found under the Emerging Infections tab.

A particularly important group of emerging infections include those occurring in health care settings (e.g., hospitals, clinics and long term care facilities). These are referred to as health care associated infections or HAIs. Our site includes FAQs for Clostridium difficile, Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs), Central Line associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs), and MRSA - for now. Information for these four can be found under the Health Care Associated Infections. We plan to have more FAQs covering e.g., Ventilatory Associated Pneumonia, Surgical Site Infections and many other pathogens/syndromes germane to the health care environment.

Pathogen Bank

This section contains valuable “ready-reference” information on a broad range of pathogens - various bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi that are defined as “Emerging Infectious Diseases/ Pathogens” by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Most of the pathogens listed in this section have direct links to great comprehensive resources (mainly CDC pages) focused on those particular pathogens. “One-stop-shop”!

Understanding the Content

A standard process is used to organize the information on this site around the major emerging infections that are either new threats or well-known challenges in the health care environment. We aim to deliver the online information in a format that is user-driven and will ensure that visitors will be informed, educated, and reassured about the core issues.

Relevant information about the infections will be displayed using a framework of standardized key frequently asked questions (FAQs) from the viewpoint of health care workers and members of the public.

Wherever possible, on the relevant pages, we have compiled several types of online materials that include a broad range of resources such as articles, monographs, infographics, web-links, videos, podcasts, and other forms of media.

Meet the Creators

Asim Jani MD, MPH is the creator of EmergingInfections.net. He currently serves as the hospital epidemiologist for Orlando Health and he is board certified in infectious disease medicine and preventative medicine. This passion project was the result of a collaborative effort between Dr. Jani and a group of Florida State University medical students who all wanted to help create a resource for emerging infections that would better serve the community of healthcare workers.

What’s to Come?

Greater Interactivity: building this website as a platform for blog posts, messaging, and to connect with other healthcare and epidemiology experts

Continuing Education platform: providing asynchronous learning via webinars, podcasts, PPT modules, etc to facilitate continuing education for team members (CMEs for physicians; and CEs for mid-level practioners, nursing, allied health and other groups) for topics related to emerging Infections, antibiotic stewardship, infection prevention, etc

Emerging Infections and Medical Education: the addition of more tools and resources to better benefit medical students, residents and fellows that work directly with many of these pathogens and syndromes

Upstream Determinants of Emerging Infections: a thorough commentary on the socio-ecological and systems-related factors that impact the emergence of infectious disease threats among individual communities

Climate Change and Emerging Infections: increased discussions and resources regarding the system-thinking links and interrelationships between climate change and emerging infections and what everyone can do to mitigate the harms associated with both entities.

Advocacy: creating collaboration among concerned health care workers for mitigation measures that improve health and protect communities from emerging infectious disease threats

Learning to be an Epidemiologist: providing several great resources to help you learn about what is epidemiology, how it is applied to the study of infectious diseases and what is involved in infectious diseases modeling and its role in assessing/responding to epidemics

Emergency Preparedness for Communicable Diseases: building on currently available OHI preparedness and response efforts to date, we will present more information and guidance for incorporating more best practices to meet emergent infectious disease threats (such as COVID-19)

COVID-19 Debrief: reflecting on the lessons learned from the pandemic