Blurring Boundaries: A Proposed Research Agenda for Ethical, Legal, Social, and Historical Studies at the Intersection of Infectious and Genetic Disease

J Law Med Ethics. 2024;52(2):443-455. doi: 10.1017/jme.2024.116. Epub 2024 Oct 22.

Abstract

Contemporary understanding of the mechanisms of disease increasingly points to examples of "genetic diseases" with an infectious component and of "infectious diseases" with a genetic component. Such blurred boundaries generate ethical, legal, and social issues and highlight historical contexts that must be examined when incorporating host genomic information into the prevention, outbreak control, and treatment of infectious diseases.

Keywords: COVID-19; ELSI; Host Genomics; Infectious Disease; Research Agenda.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Communicable Diseases* / history
  • Genetic Diseases, Inborn / history
  • History, 20th Century
  • Humans