TORCH syndrome can be prevented by treating an infected pregnant person, thereby preventing the infection from affecting the fetus.

Most of the time, Zika fever resolves on its own in 2 to 7 days, but rarely, some people develop Guillain–Barré syndrome. The fetus of a pregnant woman who has Zika fever may die or be born with congenital central nervous system malformations, like microcephaly.

Developing countries are more severely affected by TORCH syndrome.

Some vertically transmitted infections, such as toxoplasmosis and syphilis, can be effectively treated with antibiotics if the mother is diagnosed early in her pregnancy. Many viral vertically transmitted infections have no effective treatment, but some, notably rubella and varicella-zoster, can be prevented by vaccinating the mother prior to pregnancy.

If the mother has active herpes simplex (as may be suggested by a pap test), delivery by Caesarean section can prevent the newborn from contact, and consequent infection, with this virus.

IgG antibody may play crucial role in prevention of intrauterine infections and extensive research is going on for developing IgG-based therapies for treatment and vaccination.

Each type of vertically transmitted infection has a different prognosis. The stage of the pregnancy at the time of infection also can change the effect on the newborn.

Disease control in the affected countries currently centres around mosquito control. Several approaches are available for the management of "Aedes aegypti" mosquito populations, including the destruction of larval breeding sites (the aquatic pools in which eggs are laid and larvae hatch prior to mosquito development into flying adults); and, insecticides targeting either the larval stages, adult mosquitoes or both. Additionally, a whole host of novel technologies are under current development for mosquito control and the World Health Organization has recently lent its support for the accelerated development of modern methods for mosquito control such as the use of "Wolbachia" bacteria to render mosquitoes resistant to the virus, and, the release of sterilized male mosquitoes that breed with wild female mosquitoes to give rise to non-viable offspring (offspring that do not survive to the biting, adult stage).

Oxitec’s genetically modified OX513A mosquito was approved by Brazil's National Biosecurity Technical Commission (CTNBio) in April 2014 and it was being used to try to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus in the town of Piracicaba, São Paulo in 2016.

To reduce neonatal infection, routine screening of pregnant women for HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis, and rubella susceptibility is required in the UK.

Treatment with an vaginal antibiotic wash prior to birth does not prevent infection with group B streptococcus bacteria. Breast milk protects against necrotizing enterocolitis.

Because GBS bacteria can colonize the lower reproductive tract of 30% of women, typically pregnant women are tested for this pathogen from 35 to 37 weeks of pregnancy. Before delivery treatment of the mother with antibiotics reduces the rate of neonatal infection. Prevention of the infection of the baby is done by treating the mother with penicillin. Since the adoption of this prophylatic treatment, infant mortality from GBS infection has decreased by 80%.

Mothers with symptomatic HSV and who are treated with antiviral prophylaxis are less prone to have an active, symptomatic case at the time of birth and it may be able to reduce the risk of passing on HSV during birth. Cesarean delivery reduces the risk of infection of the infant.

, no approved vaccines are available. A phase-II vaccine trial used a live, attenuated virus, to develop viral resistance in 98% of those tested after 28 days and 85% still showed resistance after one year. However, 8% of people reported transient joint pain, and attenuation was found to be due to only two mutations in the E2 glycoprotein. Alternative vaccine strategies have been developed, and show efficacy in mouse models. In August 2014 researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the USA were testing an experimental vaccine which uses virus-like particles (VLPs) instead of attenuated virus. All the 25 people participated in this phase 1 trial developed strong immune responses. As of 2015, a phase 2 trial was planned, using 400 adults aged 18 to 60 and to take place at 6 locations in the Caribbean. Even with a vaccine, mosquito population control and bite prevention will be necessary to control chikungunya disease.

Most healthy people working with infants and children face no special risk from CMV infection. However, for women of child-bearing age who previously have not been infected with CMV, there is a potential risk to the developing unborn child (the risk is described above in the Pregnancy section). Contact with children who are in day care, where CMV infection is commonly transmitted among young children (particularly toddlers), may be a source of exposure to CMV. Since CMV is transmitted through contact with infected body fluids, including urine and saliva, child care providers (meaning day care workers, special education teachers, as well as mothers) should be educated about the risks of CMV infection and the precautions they can take. Day care workers appear to be at a greater risk than hospital and other health care providers, and this may be due in part to the increased emphasis on personal hygiene in the health care setting.

Recommendations for individuals providing care for infants and children:

- Employees should be educated concerning CMV, its transmission, and hygienic practices, such as handwashing, which minimize the risk of infection.

- Susceptible nonpregnant women working with infants and children should not routinely be transferred to other work situations.

- Pregnant women working with infants and children should be informed of the risk of acquiring CMV infection and the possible effects on the unborn child.

- Routine laboratory testing for CMV antibody in female workers is not specifically recommended due to its high occurrence, but can be performed to determine their immune status.

The susceptibility to risk of infection and immune deficiencies are active areas of research. Studies regarding the role of viruses in neonatal infections are lacking. Research also continues into the role and protective effect of gut, skin and other human microbiomes and the colonization during the neonatal period. The comparison between resource rich countries and resource poor countries makes it somewhat difficult to compare the diagnosis success since industrialized regions are able to confirm the diagnosis and presence of pathogens in the clinical laboratory. Clinical testing may not be available in all settings and clinicians must rely on the signs of infection in the newborn. Research data from Africa and Southeast Asia is scarce.

The result of some research has been the identification of diagnostic tools and procedures that could identify mothers with group B streptococcus infection in resource-poor regions. These procedures would be easy and inexpensive to use. Those mothers who are identified as being infected could then be prophylactly treated prior to the birth of the baby.

Probiotic administration of Lactobacillus species has shown some success.

A GBS vaccine is currently being tested but not currently available. Vaccination is estimated to being able to prevent 4% of GBS infections for preterm births and 60–70% for neonatal GBS infections in the US. The projected benefits of maternal vaccination is the prevention of 899 cases of GBS disease and 35 deaths among infants. The cost savings in the prevention of GBS may be over 43 million dollars. Vaccination may be especially beneficial in low to middle income countries where screening and prophylactic treatment is not possible. Analysts project that GBS vaccination would prevent 30–54% of infant GBS cases. Screening, prophylactic antibiotics and vaccine would prevent 48% of infection.

Recommendations for pregnant women with regard to CMV infection:

- Throughout the pregnancy, practice good personal hygiene, especially handwashing with soap and water, after contact with diapers or oral secretions (particularly with a child who is in day care). Sharing of food, eating and drinking utensils, and contact with toddlers' saliva should be avoided.

- Women who develop a mononucleosis-like illness during pregnancy should be evaluated for CMV infection and counseled about the possible risks to the unborn child.

- Laboratory testing for antibody to CMV can be performed to determine if a woman has already had CMV infection.

- Recovery of CMV from the cervix or urine of women at or before the time of delivery does not warrant a cesarean section.

- The demonstrated benefits of breast-feeding outweigh the minimal risk of acquiring CMV from the breast-feeding mother.

- There is no need to either screen for CMV or exclude CMV-excreting children from schools or institutions because the virus is frequently found in many healthy children and adults.

Treatment with hyperimmune globulin in mothers with primary CMV infection has been shown to be effective in preventing congenital disease in several studies. One study did not show significant decrease in the risk of congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

An individual may only develop signs of an infection after a period of subclinical infection, a duration that is called the incubation period. This is the case, for example, for subclinical sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and genital warts. Individuals with such subclinical infections, and those that never develop overt illness, creates a reserve of individuals that can transmit an infectious agent to infect other individuals. Because such cases of infections do not come to clinical attention, health statistics can often fail to measure the true prevalence of an infection in a population, and this prevents the accurate modeling of its infectious transmission.

In people with latent toxoplasmosis, the cysts are immune to these treatments, as the antibiotics do not reach the bradyzoites in sufficient concentration.

The medications prescribed for latent toxoplasmosis are:

- Atovaquone — an antibiotic that has been used to kill "Toxoplasma" cysts inside AIDS patients

- Clindamycin — an antibiotic that, in combination with atovaquone, seemed to optimally kill cysts in mice

Treatment is often only recommended for people with serious health problems, such as people with HIV whose CD4 counts are under 200 cells/mm, because the disease is most serious when one's immune system is weak. Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole is the drug of choice to prevent toxoplasmosis, but not for treating active disease.

A new study (May 2012) shows a promising new way to treat the active and latent form of this disease using two endochin-like quinolones.

Fever and sickness behavior and other signs of infection are often taken to be due to them. However, they are evolved physiological and behavioral responses of the host to clear itself of the infection. Instead of incurring the costs of deploying these evolved responses to infections, the body opts to tolerate an infection as an alternative to seeking to control or remove the infecting pathogen.

Subclinical infections are important since they allow infections to spread from a reserve of carriers. They also can cause clinical problems unrelated to the direct issue of infection. For example, in the case of urinary tract infections in women, this infection may cause preterm delivery if the person becomes pregnant without proper treatment.

Although no specific treatment for acute infection with SuHV1 is available, vaccination can alleviate clinical signs in pigs of certain ages. Typically, mass vaccination of all pigs on the farm with a modified live virus vaccine is recommended. Intranasal vaccination of sows and neonatal piglets one to seven days old, followed by intramuscular (IM) vaccination of all other swine on the premises, helps reduce viral shedding and improve survival. The modified live virus replicates at the site of injection and in regional lymph nodes. Vaccine virus is shed in such low levels, mucous transmission to other animals is minimal. In gene-deleted vaccines, the thymidine kinase gene has also been deleted; thus, the virus cannot infect and replicate in neurons. Breeding herds are recommended to be vaccinated quarterly, and finisher pigs should be vaccinated after levels of maternal antibody decrease. Regular vaccination results in excellent control of the disease. Concurrent antibiotic therapy via feed and IM injection is recommended for controlling secondary bacterial pathogens.

The mainstay of eradication is the identification and removal of persistently infected animals. Re-infection is then prevented by vaccination and high levels of biosecurity, supported by continuing surveillance. PIs act as viral reservoirs and are the principal source of viral infection but transiently infected animals and contaminated fomites also play a significant role in transmission.

Leading the way in BVD eradication, almost 20 years ago, were the Scandinavian countries. Despite different conditions at the start of the projects in terms of legal support, and regardless of initial prevalence of herds with PI animals, it took all countries approximately 10 years to reach their final stages.

Once proven that BVD eradication could be achieved in a cost efficient way, a number of regional programmes followed in Europe, some of which have developed into national schemes.

Vaccination is an essential part of both control and eradication. While BVD virus is still circulating within the national herd, breeding cattle are at risk of producing PI neonates and the economic consequences of BVD are still relevant. Once eradication has been achieved, unvaccinated animals will represent a naïve and susceptible herd. Infection from imported animals or contaminated fomites brought into the farm, or via transiently infected in-contacts will have devastating consequences.

SuHV1 can be used to analyze neural circuits in the central nervous system (CNS). For this purpose the attenuated (less virulent) Bartha SuHV1 strain is commonly used and is employed as a retrograde and anterograde transneuronal tracer. In the retrograde direction, SuHV1-Bartha is transported to a neuronal cell body via its axon, where it is replicated and dispersed throughout the cytoplasm and the dendritic tree. SuHV1-Bartha released at the synapse is able to cross the synapse to infect the axon terminals of synaptically connected neurons, thereby propagating the virus; however, the extent to which non-synaptic transneuronal transport may also occur is uncertain. Using temporal studies and/or genetically engineered strains of SuHV1-Bartha, second, third, and higher order neurons may be identified in the neural network of interest.

Because no approved vaccine exists, the most effective means of prevention are protection against contact with the disease-carrying mosquitoes and controlling mosquito populations by limiting their habitat. Mosquito control focuses on eliminating the standing water where mosquitos lay eggs and develop as larva; if elimination of the standing water is not possible, insecticides or biological control agents can be added. Methods of protection against contact with mosquitos include using insect repellents with substances such as DEET, icaridin, PMD (p-menthane-3,8-diol, a substance derived from the lemon eucalyptus tree), or IR3535. However, increasing insecticide resistance presents a challenge to chemical control methods.

Wearing bite-proof long sleeves and trousers also offers protection, and garments can be treated with pyrethroids, a class of insecticides that often has repellent properties. Vaporized pyrethroids (for example in mosquito coils) are also insect repellents. As infected mosquitos often feed and rest inside homes, securing screens on windows and doors will help to keep mosquitoes out of the house. In the case of the day-active "A. aegypti" and "A. albopictus", however, this will have only a limited effect, since many contacts between the mosquitoes and humans occur outdoors.

Zika virus vaccine clinical trials are to be conducted and established. There are efforts being put toward advancing antiviral therapeutics against zika virus for swift control. Present day Zika virus treatment is symptomatic through antipyretics and analgesics. Currently there are no publications regarding viral drug screening. Nevertheless, therapeutics for this infection have been used.

The sterile insect technique (SIT) uses irradiation to sterilize insect pests before releasing them in large numbers to mate with wild females. Since they do not produce any offspring, the population, and consequently the disease incidence, is reduced over time. Used successfully for decades to combat fruit flies and livestock pests such as screwworm and tsetse flies, the technique can be adapted also for some disease-transmitting mosquito species. Pilot projects are being initiated or are under way in different parts of the world.

Modern vaccination programmes aim not only to provide a high level of protection from clinical disease for the dam, but, crucially, to protect against viraemia and prevent the production of PIs. While the immune mechanisms involved are the same, the level of immune protection required for foetal protection is much higher than for prevention of clinical disease.

While challenge studies indicate that killed, as well as live, vaccines prevent foetal infection under experimental conditions, the efficacy of vaccines under field conditions has been questioned. The birth of PI calves into vaccinated herds suggests that killed vaccines do not stand up to the challenge presented by the viral load excreted by a PI in the field.

An emerging infectious disease (EID) is an infectious disease whose incidence has increased in the past 20 years and could increase in the near future. Emerging infections account for at least 12% of all human pathogens. EIDs are caused by newly identified species or strains (e.g. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, HIV/AIDS) that may have evolved from a known infection (e.g. influenza) or spread to a new population (e.g. West Nile fever) or to an area undergoing ecologic transformation (e.g. Lyme disease), or be "reemerging" infections, like drug resistant tuberculosis. Nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus are emerging in hospitals, and extremely problematic in that they are resistant to many antibiotics. Of growing concern are adverse synergistic interactions between emerging diseases and other infectious and non-infectious conditions leading to the development of novel syndemics. Many emerging diseases are zoonotic - an animal reservoir incubates the organism, with only occasional transmission into human populations.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a journal "Emerging Infectious Diseases" that identifies the following factors contributing to disease emergence:

- Microbial adaption; e.g. genetic drift and genetic shift in Influenza A

- Changing human susceptibility; e.g. mass immunocompromisation with HIV/AIDS

- Climate and weather; e.g. diseases with zoonotic vectors such as West Nile Disease (transmitted by mosquitoes) are moving further from the tropics as the climate warms

- Change in human demographics and trade; e.g. rapid travel enabled SARS to rapidly propagate around the globe

- Economic development; e.g. use of antibiotics to increase meat yield of farmed cows leads to antibiotic resistance

- Breakdown of public health; e.g. the current situation in Zimbabwe

- Poverty and social inequality; e.g. tuberculosis is primarily a problem in low-income areas

- War and famine

- Bioterrorism; e.g. 2001 Anthrax attacks

- Dam and irrigation system construction; e.g. malaria and other mosquito borne diseases

Doxycycline is the drug of choice, but azithromycin is also used as a five-day course rather than a single dose that would be used to treat "Chlamydia" infection; streptomycin is an alternative, but is less popular because it must be injected. Penicillins are ineffective — "U. urealyticum" does not have a cell wall, which is the drug's main target.