Glossary of terms in infections
>> Saturday, September 4, 2021
WELLNEWS
Victor Romulo Gallardo Dumaguing MD
CONTAGION is
the transmission of a disease from a sick person to a susceptible individual. INFECTIOUS
diseases are those caused by pathogens or harmful organisms or micro-organisms
like viruses, bacteria, fungus, protozoa up to bigger one like helminths or
worms. To the layman, all these pathogens or disease –causing organisms are
collectively called GERMS.
COMMUNICABLE diseases are those transmissible from one human to another; CONTAGIOUS diseases are communicable diseases which are MORE EASILY TRANSMITTED from one person to another.
ZOONOTIC diseases are infectious diseases that humans contract or acquire from animal sources.
SPORADIC disease is an illness that occurs only OCCASIONALLY within the population of a particular geographic area (town, province, barangay) whereas an ENDEMIC disease is one that is ALWAYS present within that population; example is the goiter endemic to certain areas of the Cordillera because of the paucity or lack of iodine sources crucial in the synthesis of thyroid hormones.
EPIDEMIC diseases are those that occur in greater than usual number of cases in a particular region (country and its nearby neighbors) and usually occurring within a worrisome short period of time. PANDEMIC disease is a disease that is occurring in epidemic proportions in many countries SIMULTANEOSLY, WORLDWIDE.
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was the most devastating illness of the 20th century which killed more than 20 million worldwide, thus it has become the catastrophe against which all pandemics of modern times are measured. As a standard procedure by the World Health Organization, pandemics like flu are named for the point of origin or first recognition example Hong Kong flu or where the variant of a virus was first identified like the UK or the alpha variant of SARs-Cov2 virus
The sources of microbes or germs that cause infectious diseases are many and varied; they are known as RESERVOIRS which may be a living host or even inanimate objects or materials where the pathogen can multiply or merely survive until it is transferred to a susceptible host. Living reservoirs include humans, household pets farm animals, certain insects and arachnids like ticks and mites, with these host not suffering from a disease brought by these “transient boarders”.
Inanimate reservoirs include air, soil, dusts, food, milk and FOMITES- which are the personal properties of a patient like handkerchief, comb, slippers, towels, as well as items found in health care facilities like beddings, gowns, eating and drinking utensils, hospital equipment such as bedpans, stethoscopes, latex gloves and other clinical gadgets and apparatus. Even telephones, doorknobs and even computer keyboards in clinics.
VECTORS are animals, mostly arthropods, which are commonly associated with human infection including insects (mosquitoes, biting flies, lice, fleas) and arachnids (mites and ticks). The arthropods vector, may first take a blood meal from an infected person or animal then bites and eventually transfer the pathogen to a healthy individual. Examples very close to our minds is the female biting Aedesaegypti mosquito that spreads dengue fever or that pesky female Anopheles flavirostris mosquito that brings the plasmodium parasites that cause malaria.
CARRIERS are persons who are colonized – the microbe is in their bodies- with a particular pathogen but the microbe is NOT CURRENTLY causing disease in them. However, asymptomatic as they are, the pathogen can be transmitted by the carrier to other persons who may become ill.
Incubatory carriers are those capable of transmitting the disease before symptoms appear while convalescent carriers are those who can transmit the disease while in the first few days of their recovery.
Isolation is a quarantine procedure to prevent a sick person from infecting others -active TB patient having a room to himself to avoid infecting his family- while REVERSE ISOLATION IS keeping a sick person away from others who might infect him some more; exemplified by HIV patients whose immunity is so low, even a cold virus from a visitor could eventually led to a deadly pneumonia by Pneumocystis carinii
Next Week: Zoonosis: Diseases transmitted by animals
COMMUNICABLE diseases are those transmissible from one human to another; CONTAGIOUS diseases are communicable diseases which are MORE EASILY TRANSMITTED from one person to another.
ZOONOTIC diseases are infectious diseases that humans contract or acquire from animal sources.
SPORADIC disease is an illness that occurs only OCCASIONALLY within the population of a particular geographic area (town, province, barangay) whereas an ENDEMIC disease is one that is ALWAYS present within that population; example is the goiter endemic to certain areas of the Cordillera because of the paucity or lack of iodine sources crucial in the synthesis of thyroid hormones.
EPIDEMIC diseases are those that occur in greater than usual number of cases in a particular region (country and its nearby neighbors) and usually occurring within a worrisome short period of time. PANDEMIC disease is a disease that is occurring in epidemic proportions in many countries SIMULTANEOSLY, WORLDWIDE.
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was the most devastating illness of the 20th century which killed more than 20 million worldwide, thus it has become the catastrophe against which all pandemics of modern times are measured. As a standard procedure by the World Health Organization, pandemics like flu are named for the point of origin or first recognition example Hong Kong flu or where the variant of a virus was first identified like the UK or the alpha variant of SARs-Cov2 virus
The sources of microbes or germs that cause infectious diseases are many and varied; they are known as RESERVOIRS which may be a living host or even inanimate objects or materials where the pathogen can multiply or merely survive until it is transferred to a susceptible host. Living reservoirs include humans, household pets farm animals, certain insects and arachnids like ticks and mites, with these host not suffering from a disease brought by these “transient boarders”.
Inanimate reservoirs include air, soil, dusts, food, milk and FOMITES- which are the personal properties of a patient like handkerchief, comb, slippers, towels, as well as items found in health care facilities like beddings, gowns, eating and drinking utensils, hospital equipment such as bedpans, stethoscopes, latex gloves and other clinical gadgets and apparatus. Even telephones, doorknobs and even computer keyboards in clinics.
VECTORS are animals, mostly arthropods, which are commonly associated with human infection including insects (mosquitoes, biting flies, lice, fleas) and arachnids (mites and ticks). The arthropods vector, may first take a blood meal from an infected person or animal then bites and eventually transfer the pathogen to a healthy individual. Examples very close to our minds is the female biting Aedesaegypti mosquito that spreads dengue fever or that pesky female Anopheles flavirostris mosquito that brings the plasmodium parasites that cause malaria.
CARRIERS are persons who are colonized – the microbe is in their bodies- with a particular pathogen but the microbe is NOT CURRENTLY causing disease in them. However, asymptomatic as they are, the pathogen can be transmitted by the carrier to other persons who may become ill.
Incubatory carriers are those capable of transmitting the disease before symptoms appear while convalescent carriers are those who can transmit the disease while in the first few days of their recovery.
Isolation is a quarantine procedure to prevent a sick person from infecting others -active TB patient having a room to himself to avoid infecting his family- while REVERSE ISOLATION IS keeping a sick person away from others who might infect him some more; exemplified by HIV patients whose immunity is so low, even a cold virus from a visitor could eventually led to a deadly pneumonia by Pneumocystis carinii
Next Week: Zoonosis: Diseases transmitted by animals
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