Epidemiology, Diagnostic Tools, and Vaccination Strategies for Emerging Infectious Diseases: Preparing for the Next Pandemic

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted critical gaps in global preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks, underscoring the urgent need for continuous surveillance, advanced diagnostic tools, and effective vaccination strategies. Beyond COVID-19, the reemergence of diseases such as influenza, dengue, and tuberculosis, alongside sexually transmitted infections and vaccine-preventable diseases including measles, varicella, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C further exemplifies the ongoing risks posed by infectious agents. Emerging threats such as Zika and Chagas disease, compounded by global travel, urbanization, and climate change, require proactive approaches in order to mitigate their public health impact.

Effective preparedness for future pandemics requires a multidimensional strategy. Epidemiological surveillance is the cornerstone of early detection and risk assessment, enabling timely interventions to control outbreaks. Advances in diagnostic technologies, including point-of-care testing, molecular diagnostics, and biosensors, enhance the speed and accuracy of disease identification, even in resource-limited settings. Simultaneously, vaccination remains a cornerstone of infectious disease prevention, but gaps in vaccine coverage and the emergence of resistant pathogens challenge our efforts to protect vulnerable populations.

Global collaboration is essential in addressing these challenges, ensuring equitable access to diagnostic and preventive tools while fostering innovation in public health responses. By integrating surveillance, diagnostics, and vaccination strategies, healthcare systems can increase their capacity to detect and respond to emerging infectious diseases. Preparing for the next pandemic is a scientific imperative and a critical step toward safeguarding global health security and reducing the burden of preventable diseases.

This Special Issue will focus on advancing the research in epidemiological surveillance, diagnostic tools, and vaccination strategies to address challenges posed by emerging and vaccine-preventable diseases. By fostering innovation and global collaboration, we aim to help strengthen healthcare systems and enhance preparedness for future pandemics.

Suggested themes, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Epidemiological Surveillance

• Strategies for the real-time monitoring of infectious disease outbreaks.
• Applications of artificial intelligence and big data in disease surveillance.
• The integration of digital tools into epidemiological risk assessment.

2. Innovations in Diagnostic Technologies

• The development and evaluation of point-of-care diagnostic devices.
• Advances in molecular diagnostics, including CRISPR and NGS technologies.
• Multi-pathogen panels for the simultaneous detection of co-infections.

3. Vaccination Strategies and Impact

• The development of next-generation vaccines for emerging pathogens.
• The evaluation of the efficacy and safety of vaccines in diverse populations.
• Strategies to improve vaccine acceptance and coverage in hesitant communities.

4. Emerging and Reemerging Diseases

• Risk assessment and preparedness for diseases such as dengue, Zika, and Chagas.
• The surveillance of sexually transmitted infections and vaccine-preventable diseases.
• The role of climate change and globalization in disease emergence.

5. Global Preparedness and Collaboration

• Lessons learned from COVID-19 in pandemic preparedness.
• Capacity building and equitable resource distribution in underserved regions.
• The role of international partnerships in vaccine and diagnostic development.

6. Antimicrobial Resistance and Diagnostics

• Addressing challenges in detecting resistant pathogens.
• Surveillance strategies for antimicrobial resistance in healthcare settings.

Dr. Luis Pablo Cruz-Hervert
Dr. Maria-Eugenia Jimenez-Corona
Dr. Renata Alejandra Báez Saldaña
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• emerging infectious diseases
• COVID-19
• influenza
• epidemiological surveillance
• diagnostic innovations
• vaccination strategies
• vaccine-preventable diseases
• drug resistance
• infectious disease modeling
• global health preparedness