Disease: An illness or disorder of the mind or body that leads to poor health; each disease is

associated with a set of signs and symptoms.

Infectious Disease (a.k.a. communicable diseases): A disease caused by a pathogen, passed from
an infected person to an uninfected person.
Non-infectious Disease: Any disease not caused by a pathogen. (e.g. malnutrition, COPD, sickle
cell anaemia)
Pathogen (a.k.a. causative agent): An organism that causes an infectious disease.
Carriers: Someone who is infected with a pathogen but does not show any symptoms of the
disease; people like this can be sources of infections that are hard to trace.
Transmission Cycle: The way in which a pathogen passes from one host to another.
Endemic: A disease that is always in a population.
Epidemic: A sudden increase in the number of people with the disease.
Pandemic: An increase in the number of cases of a disease across a continent or the world.
Incidence: The number of people who are diagnosed over a certain period of time.
Prevalence: The number of people who have the disease at any one time.
Mortality: The death rate from different diseases.
Vector: An organism which carries a disease from one person to another or from an animal to a
person.
Prophylactic: Preventative drugs which prevent an infection from occurring.
Antibiotic: A drug that kills or stops the growth of bacteria, without harming the cells of the infected
organism.
General

Some infectious diseases can be transmitted by direct contact because the pathogen cannot
survive outside the human body (HIV). Others are transmitted indirectly, through food, water,
faeces, or animals.
Control methods attempt to break the transmission cycles by removing conditions that favour the
spread of the pathogen.
- This is only possible once the cause and the method of transmission of the disease are
understood.
- Vaccination is a major control method as it makes us immune so that pathogens do not live
and reproduce inside us and do not spread to others.
Disease

Pathogen

Cholera

Malaria

Global
distribution

Method of
transmission
/ incubation
period

Clinical
features

Vibrio Cholerae Asia, Africa,

(bacterium)
Latin
America
(endemic in
West/East
Africa and
Afganistan)

food-borne,
water-borne
(2 hours - 5
days)

Diarrhoea,
wall of the
loss of water small
and salts,
intestine
dehydration,
weakness

Microscopical
analysis of
faeces

Plasmodium
falciparum,
P. vivax, P.
ovale, P.
malariae
(protoctist)

Insect vector:
the female
Anopheles
mosquito
(a week - a
year)

fever,
liver, red
anaemia,
blood cells,
nausea,
brain
headaches,
muscle pain,
shivering,
sweating,
enlarged
spleen

Microscopical
examination
of blood, dip
stick test for
malaria
antigens in
blood

Tropical and
subtropical
regions

Site of
action

Method of
diagnosis

Disease

Pathogen

Global
distribution

Method of
transmission
/ incubation
period

Clinical
features

Site of
action

Method of
diagnosis

HIV/AIDS

Human
immunodeficie
ncy virus
(virus)

worldwide,
especially in
SubSaharan
Africa and
South-East
Asia

In semen and
vaginal fluids
during sexual
intercourse,
infected blood,
contaminated
hypodermic
syringes,
mother to
fetus through
placenta, at
birth, mother
to baby in
breast milk
(few weeks;
AIDS: up to 10
years)

HIV: flu-like
symptoms
and then
symptomles
s
AIDS:
Opportunisti
c infections
like
pneumonia,
TB, cancers,
weight loss,
diarrhoea,
fever,
sweating
dementia

Helper T
lymphocytes,
macrophage,
brain cells

Testing the
blood, saliva,
or urine for
antibodies
produced
against HIV

Tuberculos Mycobacterium
is
tuberculosis,
M. bovis
(bacterium)

worldwide

airborne
droplets (M.
tuberculosis),
undercooked
meat and
unpasteurised
milk (M. bovis)
(few weeks several years)

Racking
cough,
coughing
blood, chest
pain,
shortness of
breath,
fever,
sweating,
weight loss
(look
emaciated)

Primary
infection in
lungs,
secondary
infection in
lymph nodes,
bone and gut

Microscopical
examination
of sputum
(mucus and
pus) for
bacteria,
chest X-ray

Measles

mainly in
Africa,
South-East
Asia, India,
Pakistan
Bangladesh
, and some
other
countries in
the Middle
East.

(8-14 days)

Fever, rash,
conjunctivitis
, a runny
nose, a
cough, white
sports inside
the cheeks.

Upper
respiratory
tract (nasal
cavity and
trachea)

Testing the
blood for
antibodies
produced
against
measles.

Morbillivirus