ABSTRACT
Infectious disease is a common problem in clinical medicine. The infection results from the invasion of pathogen into the host and further cause inflammatory process that finalize into the clinical problem. The infectious disease is a challenge in medicine. There are many new emerging infectious diseases. Regarding the new disease, there is usually a limited knowledge on pathogenesis and this can result in difficulty in diagnosis and treatment. Within the past decade, many new emerging virus infections such as Zika virus infection, MERS, and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurred. Those new emerging virus infections are usually problematic and become the global public health consideration. Those diseases can result in unwanted morbidity and mortality and it is the role of infectious medicine to control and manage those new emerging viral disease. The diagnosis and treatment become the two important processes in medicine regarding new emerging infections. An important knowledge is immunological mechanism related to that disease. Regarding an infection, 196the triad, host, pathogen, and environment plays interrelationship at the same time and place that can result in final occurrence of infection. When a pathogen contacts with host, there will be a responsive interaction. Host usually has defensive mechanism against the pathogen. The specific response via immunological system is the important body defense to infection. This is also important in counteracting with new emerging virus infection. Since new emerging virus is a new disease, the knowledge on immunopathogenesis is limited. The clinical immunologist does usually not know the exact immunological pathway that host responded to the pathogenic agent. Many ongoing studies are on immunopathogenesis of the new diseases. The derived data will be useful for searching for new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for the new diseases. The specific role of immunological system in the treatment of disease is very interesting since it is usually required a new effect method to contain the new emerging viral infection. Of several new therapeutic approaches, immunotherapy is a widely proposed therapeutic technique against the infection. For the new emerging viral infection, immunotherapy is also proposed as a new therapeutic alternative technique. There are many forms of immunotherapy such as passive immunity or immunoglobulin therapy, therapeutic vaccination, and immunomodulatory agent. The immunomodulator is a specific agent that has main pharmacobiomechanism in the modification of immunological reaction that will be useful in control and getting rid of the infectious pathogen. The immunomodulatory agent therapy for new emerging infection is a big challenge. In this chapter, the authors summarize and discussion on immunomolulator in the three important new emerging viral infections, Zika virus infection, MERS, and COVID-19. In the present new COVID-19 crisis, many classic immunomodulators are proposed for possible usefulness in disease management and there are many ongoing trials on those new immunomodulatory agents. Additionally, new studies aiming at searching for new effective and safe immunomodulatory agents for the treatment of the new are ongoing and it is the hope for the management of the COVID-19.
