It has been suggested that changes in various socioeconomic, environmental and biological factors have been drivers of emerging and reemerging infectious disease, although few have assessed these relationships on a global scale. Understanding these associations could help build better forecasting models, and therefore identify high-priority regions for public health and surveillance implementation. Although infectious disease surveillance and research have tended to be concentrated in wealthier, developed countries in North America, Europe and Australia, it is developing countries that have been predicted to be the next hotspots for emerging infectious diseases.
Objective
To evaluate the association between socioeconomic factors and infectious disease outbreaks, to develop a prediction model for where future outbreaks would most likely to occur worldwide and identify priority countries for surveillance capacity building.