International Development, Emerging Diseases,

For nearly half a century, the medical community in most developed countries has focused on emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) as a key threat to global health. EIDs are thought to primarily originate in tropical regions where wildlife biodiversity and human population density are high (Jones et al. 2008). Simultaneously, most of the countries that are home to the bulk of the world’s biodi-versity are also among its poorest economies. These regions are under-resourced in public health capacities, therefore limiting local ability to cope with day-to-day endemic disease threats as well as delaying the identification and response to emerging pathogens. Broadly speaking, poor public health infrastructure remains a key impediment to global development and may contribute to a disease-driven ‘poverty trap ’ (Bonds et al. 2010) in which poor healt