The economic crisis and infectious disease control

The economic crisis has challenged many deeply held notions about banks, markets and the financial sector. Concerns have also been raised that the economic crisis has the potential to affect the control of infectious diseases. Although there is agreement that the crisis will affect infectious disease control, there is disagreement about how. Some scientists have raised concerns that both emerging infectious disease threats, such as the H1N1 pandemic, as well as longstanding challenges, such as control of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and their drug-resistance strains, could suffer if communicable disease control budgets are cut. They point to the rises in HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis that occurred in former communist countries in the 1990s.