Some of the most dramatic progress has been in vaccine development.11 2021 saw one of the biggest successes of recent years, with the approval of the first successful malaria vaccine RTS,S/AS01 or Mosquirix.12 There are also approved vaccines for the Ebola virus,13 and several Zika virus vaccines are undergoing clinical testing.14 If these vaccines can be successfully rolled out to vulnerable populations, the burden of these diseases will be substantially reduced.15
A key challenge for pathogen biologists and medical professionals is to understand the multifarious health impacts of pathogens. This has been highlighted by the covid-19 pandemic. While coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 are thought of as primarily respiratory infections, in fact their effects range across many body systems.16
Finally, pathogen biology must be harnessed for the broader long-term goal of predicting and preventing outbreaks. This means understanding which pathogens are “out there” on a global scale, and identifying those that pose a risk to human health.
