Advances in Molecular Epidemiology and Innovative Diagnostic Strategies for Infectious Disease Control

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 824

Special Issue Editors

Department of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Prevention, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Science, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3, Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Interests: molecular surveillance; innovative molecular diagnostics; extraction-free assays; infectious-disease elimination

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Guest Editor
Department of Public Health and Health Policy, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Science, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3, Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Interests: health-system resilience; health-services; community preparedness; global health
Department of Human Immunology and Translational Research, National Institute of Global Health and Medicine, Japan Institute for Health Security, 1-21-1, Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan
Interests: epidemiology; infectious diseases; clinical immunology; hepatology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The global effort to eliminate major infectious diseases including viral hepatitis, HIV, syphilis, and other emerging pathogens relies on early detection, timely diagnosis, and strong linkage to care. Comprehensive screening and continuous epidemiological surveillance are essential in enabling targeted prevention, rapid outbreak response, and evidence-based resource allocation. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for rapid, accurate, scalable, and cost-effective diagnostic platforms that can support both routine monitoring and emergency preparedness.

Recent advances such as high-throughput sequencing, extraction-free molecular diagnostics, point-of-care technologies, sero-molecular surveillance systems, epidemiological modelling, and integrated public health data demonstrate transformative potential. However, rigorous scientific evaluation is required to assess feasibility, implementation, cost-effectiveness, and real-world impacts across diverse settings, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where the infectious disease burden remains disproportionately high.

This Special Issue will focus on advances in molecular epidemiology and innovative diagnostic strategies for infectious disease control, welcoming high-quality original research and reviews on molecular surveillance, novel diagnostics, disease burden monitoring, outbreak investigation, and implementation science.

Through multidisciplinary collaboration among global researchers, clinicians, laboratory scientists, public health professionals, and policymakers, this Special Issue will strengthen our diagnostic and surveillance capacity and accelerate progress toward infectious disease control and global health security. We warmly welcome your submissions.

Dr. Ko Ko
Dr. Inn Kynn Khaing
Dr. Zayar Phyo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • elimination
  • eradication
  • surveillance
  • diagnostics
  • screening
  • epidemiology
  • pathogens
  • outbreaks
  • genomics
  • sequencing
  • CRISPR
  • point-of-care
  • modelling
  • innovation
  • preparedness

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 13158 KB  
Article
Respiratory Infection-Related Pathogens in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit During 2019–2024 in Hubei, China
by Jiahui Chen, Ying Li, Dan Sun, Hebin Chen, Haizhou Liu, Wenqing Li, Yanli Wang, Feng Han, Jiali Xu, Xueru Liu, Hui Du, Youjing Liu, Qing Du, Yifei Zhang, Yan Li, Yi Yan, Di Liu and Xiaoxia Lu
Pathogens 2026, 15(2), 219; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens15020219 - 14 Feb 2026
Viewed by 593
Abstract
Respiratory infections are a leading cause of hospitalization and mortality in children, and the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is a critical setting for managing severe cases. However, the epidemiological patterns of respiratory pathogens in the PICU remain insufficiently characterized. In this retrospective [...] Read more.
Respiratory infections are a leading cause of hospitalization and mortality in children, and the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is a critical setting for managing severe cases. However, the epidemiological patterns of respiratory pathogens in the PICU remain insufficiently characterized. In this retrospective study, we analyzed respiratory pathogen testing results from 2126 pediatric patients admitted to the PICU of Wuhan Children’s Hospital between 2019 and 2024. The pathogen spectrum and epidemiological characteristics were evaluated across age groups and seasons. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV, 18.06%) was the most frequently detected viral pathogen, while Streptococcus pneumoniae (6.96%) was the predominant non-viral pathogen. The overall infection burden was highest in children aged ≤ 1 year (53.75%) and 3 < age ≤ 6 years (54.70%), indicating that early childhood represents a high-risk period for severe respiratory infections requiring intensive care. Pathogen distribution varied significantly across age groups. Distinct seasonal patterns were observed for several respiratory pathogens, particularly among viral pathogens, whereas non-viral pathogens showed more variable seasonal distributions. Furthermore, screening for 10 common pathogens accounted for 75% of PICU respiratory infections, highlighting the clinical utility of multiplex molecular detection. This study delineates the pathogen spectrum of respiratory tract infections in the PICU and characterizes their age- and season-specific epidemiological patterns. This study defines the pathogen spectrum and age- and season-specific patterns of respiratory infections in the PICU, providing evidence to support targeted pathogen surveillance, optimized multiplex diagnostics, and risk-informed infection control strategies in pediatric critical care. Full article
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