Originalien und Übersichtsarbeiten

Pathogens of life-threatening and simulta- neously highly contagious viral and bacterial human infectious diseases might be brought into Germany from foreign countries not on- ly by infected humans, but also by infected arthropod and rodent vectors and/or animal hosts and reservoir animals. Especially peri- domestic and commensal rodent and arthro- pod vector species have been proven to spread globally, mainly by unintended trans- port via ship or aircraft after infestation of the transport device.While management and control of life-threatening disease agents brought in by humans recently reached a functional working level, and eval- uation of effective aircraft disinsection methods are currently under investigation aiming at licensing suitable products for vec- tor control, no coordinated countermeasures were implemented so far to monitor and control vector species brought in by interna- tional travel and commerce e.g. by shipping via containerized crop products. Due to the rare occurrence in Germany of these diseases associated with a high case fatality rate stan- dardized reaction schemes are necessary to prevent the further spreading of the most highly contagious agents.Therefore, disease monitoring and preventive medical strate- gies have to be developed and implement- ed, thus integrating the professional exper- tises of medical entomologists, pest control operators, and disinfectors.