Family Medicine and Disease Prevention: Core Topics for Modern and Healthy Society

Family medicine is expression of societal needs in terms of health and welfare standards. From newborn to elderly, all single members of the family are primary subjects for health strategies. Family physicians, practitioners, researchers in the field of healthcare, medicine and general practice are directly involved in first line to ensure adequate sanitary standards and promote preventive measures. Effective health and welfare strategies require the support of interdisciplinary interventions, in accordance with the “One health” principle. In particular, harmonious and coordinated efforts between the human healthcare sector and veterinary medicine are required in the field of zoonotic diseases. In this context, not only zootechnics but also wild fauna merit attention, taking into account that more than 60% of the newly identified infectious agents that have affected people over the past few decades have been caused by pathogens originating from animals or animal products. Of these zoonotic infections, 70% originate from wildlife. Examples are given by bat-borne diseases. Chiropters have been indicated as important reservoirs of new dangerous zoonoses such as Ebola, Marburg, Lissa virus (rabies), Melaka, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARSCoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Nipah virus.