Surveillance of wildlife zoonotic diseases in the Balkans Region.

The countries of the Balkan Peninsula have become the region with frequent outbreaks of the emerging and re-emerging diseases during the last decade of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st century. The majority of outbreaks were wildlife zoonotic, and vector-borne diseases, such as brucellosis, leptospirosis, listeriosis, tularemia, Q-fever, Lyme disease, anthrax, rabies, viral hemorrhagic fevers, sandfly fever, tick-borne encephalitis and leishmainiasis. Epidemiological factors determined by ecology of causative agents are often the most useful diagnostic clues. The recognition of evolving problems of emerging and re-emerging diseases emphasizes the need for the development of better laboratory diagnostic methods for the surveillance and tracking of the diseases, and for continued research of factors contributing to the transmission of the organisms. The continuous occurrence of previously unidentified infections requires prospective national strategies for timely recognition of the syndromes, causative agent identification, establishment of criteria and methods for the diagnosis, optimization of the treatment regime, and determination of successful approaches to prevention and control. Wildlife diseases surveillance in the most of the Balkan countries has been coordinated by the WHO since 1992. Although new technology and communication have extremely improved in the last decade, there is a need for optimal communication lines among the Balkan countries, better exploitation of communication technologies like the Internet and other media in the field of emerging diseases.