Theme Editorial: Controlled Human Infection Models: Exploring the landscape in India.

Controlled Human Infection Models (CHIMs) refers to the intentional introduction of an infectious agent into a healthy volunteer to deliberately induce the infection under regulated conditions. These studies can be useful in discovering the origin and development of a disease, its immunological responses and natural course, as well as in the evaluation of interventions. CHIMs have yielded data that have informed the development process of several vaccines in recent years. Infectious diseases contribute substantially to the global burden of disease and therefore research and development in the context of infectious diseases is a high priority.