This post aims to address the question, what are infectious diseases? Infectious diseases are also known as contagious diseases, communicable diseases or transmissible diseases. They are diseases that can pass from one person to another and are caused by pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa etc. According to wikipedia , these pathogens can be transmitted by physical contact physical contact, contaminated food, body fluids, objects, airborne inhalation, or through vector organisms.
Infectious diseases in humans may be sporadic, endemic, epidemic, or pandemic. These terms are distinguished by the hygienist as follows :-
- Sporadic, where isolated cases of the disease appear.
- Endemic, where the disease affects the inhabitants of a given area from year to year.
- Epidemic, where a disease appears suddenly and affects a large number of inhabitants, the number of cases rapidly increasing and decreasing.
- Pandemic, where a disease is epidemic over a large territory, even approaching world-wide distribution. As an example, the influenza outbreak in 1918 might be distinguished as a pandemic as it affected the whole world.
In the animal kingdom the above terms equivalent are are sporadic, enzootic, and epizootic.
There are various ways of dealing with infectious diseases to prevent theirs spread. Some of the ways of preventing infectious diseases are:-
- Disinfection and pest control. This gets rid of the pathogens causing the diseases thereby reducing the risk of its spread.
- Immunisation may prevent infectious diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis
- Washing hands, a form of hygiene is one of the most effective ways of preventing the spread of infectious diseases.
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