Kevin Steele
Health
Mr. Finamore
Infectious Diseases
As you exit the bus, another passenger next to you starts to cough, and then you hold the handrail as you exit the bus. Since you’re late getting home, you take a shortcut through a field to get home quicker. These three simple acts just exposed you to bacteria, viruses, and insects that could cause illness or even death. Infectious diseases, also known as communicable disease, are spread by germs. Germs are living things that are found in the air, in the soil, and in water. You can be exposed to germs in many ways, including touching, eating, drinking or breathing something that contains a germ. Animal and insect bites can also spread germs.1
These germs, or organisms, are often living in or on our bodies. Most of the time they are harmless, and sometimes they are helpful.2 These organisms are often called microorganisms because they are so small they can only be seen through a microscope. There are millions of microorganisms living in your body that help with body functions. The problem is when a microorganism that can cause disease enters your body and starts to multiply. These unwanted microorganisms are called pathogens. Pathogens can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoans and insects or animals.3
Bacteria are one cause of infectious disease. Bacteria are a single-cell microorganism that is very common in our bodies. Less than one percent of bacteria will actually make us sick. Some of the more common infections caused by bacteria include strep throat, salmonella, and e-coli. Strep throat is common in children and causes a painful sore throat. Strep is usually treated with antibiotic medication. Salmonella is spread on food that is contaminated by human or animal...
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...ft on surfaces like the raining on the bus and insects that can bite you and infect you. Since you know you are going to be in contact with them, you have to take precautions not to get sick. The best way to do this is to eat a well-balanced diet making sure your food is cooked properly and handled properly. You should also make sure to wash your hands frequently. You should especially wash them before eating to stop microorganisms from getting on your food and then into your body. You should also thoroughly wash your hands after using the bathroom to prevent the spread of germs. Washing your hands is also important after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing. You should also wash your hands before and after touching a cut or wound. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that proper hand washing is the best way to prevent the spread of infection.6
...y infections that could cause short term or long term unneeded damage. For this reason doctors and health care professionals are recommending that all people of all ages to get theses vaccines (University of Maryland Center, 2014). Other ways to prevent this disease are to simply keep clean and be aware of good hand hygiene (University of Maryland Center, 2014). By washing your hands with antimicrobial soap and warm water with friction, most bacteria are killed. Doing this prevents organisms from potentially getting inside your body.
Tuberculosis or TB is an airborn infection caused by inhaled droplets that contain mycobacterium tuberculosis. When infected, the body will initiate a cell-mediated hypersensitivity response which leads to formation of lesion or cavity and positive reaction to tuberculin skin test (Kaufman, 2011). People who have been infected with mycobacteria will have a positive skin test, but only ones who have active TB will show signs and symtoms. Basic signs and symptoms include low grade fever, cough with hemoptysis, and tachypnea. They may also show pleuristic chest pain, dyspnea, progressive weight loss, fatigue and malaise (Porth, 2011).
Organisms that cause disease can variety the ordinary cold to food poisoning to meningitis. They can spread in various ways such as by contacting with body fluids, consumption of undercooked food, or swimming in dirty water. In many countries surveys have took place to see the amount of disease spread by waterborne pathogens. One of the most way pathogens are spread is through personal contact.
Tuberculosis is an air-borne disease, hence, it can be passed from an infected person to a healthy individual through coughing, sneezing and other salivary secretions. Tuberculosis is caused by the transfer of Mycobacteriun Tuberculosis (M. Tuberculosis) also known as Tubercle Bacillus, a small particle of 1-5 microns in diameter, due to the small size, when an infected person sneezes or coughs, about 3,000 particles are expelled. M. Tuberculosis responsible for tuberculosis is able to stay in the air for a long period of time (about 6hoursAnother way of acquiring Tuberculosis is by drinking unpasteurized milk, milk straight from cow, although this is not a common mode of transmission, it can be found in rural areas. Ingestion of contaminated cow milk transmits Mycobacterium Bovis, the animal form which is still potent enough to cause tuberculosis in humans. ). Tuberculosis transmission is affected by exposure, socioeconomic status of person, proximity, immune status of uninfected individual (%&&%&? CDC).
Pathogens are organisms that are capable of causing diseases in other organisms and are considered to be ubiquitous. They can be found in water, on surfaces, and on or in humans, plants, and animals. Different pathogens have different signs and symptoms, treatment options, ways of transmission, diagnoses, and prognoses. Chickenpox, also known as varicella, and shingles are diseases caused by the same pathogen and have many of the same characteristics, but are also unique in their own ways.
Some bacteria cause disease, and are called pathogens. They cause disease by producing toxins that harm tissue within the body. Others are harmless or even useful, performing many vital functions in the body, such as aiding digestion.
Meningitis is defined as inflammation of the meninges, which are the thin membranous covering of the brain and spinal cord. There are different variations of the disease which include bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic, and non-infectious.
An infectious disease is caused by another organism whether bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic or rickettsia. Infectious diseases are transmitted through a direct transfer of bacteria, viruses or other germs from one person to another. This can happen when someone who has the bacterium or virus touches, kisses, coughs/sneezes on someone who is not infected. Noninfectious disease cannot be passed from one being to another. Non-infectious diseases are generic or life style related. Things such as Down syndrome and skin cancer are non-infectious diseases.
In 1665, in the Kingdom of England, there was a great disease going through the kingdom that killed over 100,000 people, it was passed throughout the population by tiny bugs that were everywhere and were nearly impossible to avoid. This epidemic is known as the Great Plague of London, 1665 and it is the strand of the Bubonic Plague that tore through London, killing about 15% of London’s population which was around 100,000 people. This Plague was one of the worst diseases to tear through Europe in the 1300’s - the 1600’s. It hit England especially hard because they were on an island and had to where to go and couldn't avoid the spreading of the disease.
Engelkirk & Burton (1979) state that bacteria can reproduce asexually by simple division of cells and some bacteria reproduce sexually by conjunction. A bacterium is a waste producer of products and secretions. This allows pathogens to invade their hosts to cause disease some of these harmful diseases are Scarlet fever, an acute illness, characterized by a reddish skin rash, which is caused by systematic infection with the bacterium streptococcus. St. Anthony’s Fire is another bacterial disease. “St. Anthony’s Fire which is an acute superficial form of celluitus involving the dermal lymphatic, usually caused by infection with streptococci and chiefly characterized by a peripherally spreading hot, bright red, oedematous.
Infectious diseases are the disorders caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasite who live both inside and outside our bodies and are normally helpful but can cause infectious diseases to the human (body) system under certain conditions. And for a disease to be infectious, there is what is called ‘’chain of infection’’ that takes place before. And this can be seen in the below diagram:
A pathogen which is a germ or infection causes disease or illness to cells it
Bacteria is an organism, which is very tiny, that is slightly larger than a nasty virus. Your amazing body, that God constructed,
The infectious category refers to an infectious disease that is caused by a biological agent such as a virus, bacterium or parasite. Infectious diseases are the invasion of a host organism by a foreign replicator, generally microorganisms, often called microbes. Microbes that cause illness are also known as pathogens. The most common pathogens are various bacteria and viruses. An infectious disease is termed contagious if it is easily transmitted from one person to another. An organism that a microbe infects is known as the host for that microbe. In the human host, a microorganism causes disease by either disrupting a vital body process or stimulating the immune system to mount a defensive reaction.
When you hear the word bacteria the first thing that might come to mind would be a germ. Although there can be many harmful types of bacteria, it is an essential part of life. Bacterium is all over...