The global interest to know and deal with infectious diseases in humans and animals has led to the development of different models (mathematical, stochastic, discrete), applied to predict the spread of new epidemics, reduce the spread of infectious diseases, evaluate the impact of different disease control strategies and improve the living conditions of individuals. Nowadays, new techniques and tools are being implemented to model infectious diseases, this paper describes the main concepts of this area, current trends and existing challenges, and finally, describes some criteria for the selection of an epidemiological model.