Infectious disease
hideAn infectious disease is a clinically evident disease resulting from the presence of pathogenic microbial agents, including pathogenic viruses, pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions. These pathogens are able to cause disease in animals and/or plants. Infectious pathologies are usually qualified as contagious diseases (also called communicable diseases) due to their potential of transmission from one person or species to another. Transmission of an infectious disease may occur through one or more of diverse pathways including physical contact with infected individuals. These infecting agents may also be transmitted through liquids, food, body fluids, contaminated objects, airborne inhalation, or through vector-borne spread.
The term infectivity describes the ability of an organism to enter, survive and multiply in the host, while the infectiousness of a disease indicates the comparative ease with which the disease is transmitted to other hosts. An infection however, is not synonymous with an infectious disease, as an infection may not cause important clinical symptoms or impair host function.
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News tagged with infectious diseases
Cost of child vaccines fall, more kids saved
Nov 20, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Babies squirmed and wailed as needles plunged into their chubby thighs at a public health clinic on the outskirts of Hanoi on Friday. Like little ones everywhere, the reaction to the sting was never pretty.
New findings suggest strategy to help generate HIV-neutralizing antibodies
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 19, 2009 |
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New discoveries about anti-HIV antibodies may bring researchers a step closer to creating an effective HIV vaccine, according to a new paper co-authored by scientists at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute ...
Preventing H1N1 spread to health care workers: Dilemma, debate and confusion
Nov 19, 2009 |
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A commentary in the December issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases brings to light the gaps in knowledge on the transmission of a common pathogen - the influenza virus - and its impact on decisions about how best to pro ...
The protein Srebp2 drives cholesterol formation in prion-infected neuronal cells
Nov 18, 2009 |
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Prions are causing fatal and infectious diseases of the nervous system, such as the mad cow disease (BSE), scrapie in sheep or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität ...
Could Widely Used Rapid Influenza Tests Pose A Dangerous Public Health Risk?
Nov 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Rapid influenza diagnostic tests used in doctors' offices, hospitals and medical laboratories to detect H1N1 are virtually useless and could pose a significant danger to public health, according to a Loyola ...
Research calls for better assessment of tests for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria
Nov 17, 2009 |
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A rapid and accurate diagnosis is the first step towards treatment in the fight against infectious disease. However, a team headed by Dr. Madhukar Pai at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) ...
New explanation for nature's hardiest life form
Nov 12, 2009 |
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Got food poisoning? The cause might be bacterial spores, en extremely hardy survival form of bacteria, a nightmare for health care and the food industry and an enigma for scientists. Spore-forming bacteria, present almost ...
Prevention experts urge modification to 2009 H1N1 guidance for health care workers
Nov 06, 2009 |
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Three leading scientific organizations specializing in infectious diseases prevention issued a letter to President Obama today expressing their significant concern with current federal guidance concerning the use of personal ...
Journal special edition outlines rotavirus burden and need for vaccines
Nov 05, 2009 |
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The Journal of Infectious Diseases has released a special edition, Global Rotavirus Surveillance: Preparing for the Introduction of Rotavirus Vaccines. This special edition provides a significant contribution to the unders ...
Flu vaccine given to women during pregnancy keeps infants out of the hospital
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Infants born to women who received influenza vaccine during pregnancy were hospitalized at a lower rate than infants born to unvaccinated mothers, according to preliminary results of an ongoing study by researchers at Yale ...
Poorly cleaned public cruise ship restrooms may predict norovirus outbreaks
Nov 02, 2009 |
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A team of researchers from Boston University School (BUSM), Carney Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts University School of Medicine, have found that widespread poor compliance with regular cleaning of public restrooms ...
Pandemic flu vaccine campaigns may be undermined by coincidental medical events
Oct 30, 2009 |
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The effectiveness of pandemic flu vaccination campaigns - like that now underway for H1N1 - could be undermined by the public incorrectly associating coincidental and unrelated health events with the vaccines.
Progress made on group B streptococcus vaccine
Oct 30, 2009 |
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Scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have completed a Phase II clinical study that indicates a vaccine to prevent Group B Streptococcus ...
CDC: Up to 6 million swine flu cases in few months
Oct 29, 2009 |
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(AP) -- As many as 5.7 million Americans were infected with swine flu during the first few months of the pandemic, according to estimates from federal health officials.
Study: Cholesterol drugs may improve flu survival
Medicine & Health / Medications
Oct 29, 2009 |
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(AP) -- A new treatment for swine flu may already be on pharmacy shelves - cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor and Zocor.
