Emerging Infectious Diseases

The type diseases become extremely crucial in the assortment of statistics on reasons behind the illness (morbidity) and causes of death (mortality). It is very important to know the kinds of ailments and disease that are common in an area and how their prevalence rates differ with time to time. Classification of disease has helped to detect an important, frequently causal, relationship.

Diagnosis of disease involves determining an infectious pathogen either directly or indirectly. In practice, most are diagnosed by their clinical presentation and are treated without the expertise of that causative agent. Outcome of the cause of the disease are based upon the likelihood that a patient came in contact with a specific agent, the presence of a pathogen in a community, and other epidemiological considerations. When sufficient efforts are given, the infectious agents can be specifically examined.

Rare diseases are those medical anomalies, which affect a very least number of the population. They are defined by a wide variety of disorders and syndrome that differs not only from disease to disease but also from person to person suffering from these diseases. About 70% of these disorders are recognized by genetic origins while the others are the result of infections, allergies and environmental outcomes.

Pediatric infectious diseases are the contagious diseases which are caused in children of different age groups. Pediatric infectious diseases consultant takes care of the infections occurring in children and the curing approaches vary for children from adults. Spreading of diseases can be through direct contact like touching and indirect contact with the infected person. Droplet transmission is very common. Airborne spreading occurs when germs stay in the air and are carried around on air current.

After the birth of the infants, they receive intestinal microflora from their mother’s microbiota. An infant’s indigenous floras differ by mode of delivery and are shaped by environment, genetics, and the mode of feeding. Breast milk affects the infant’s intestinal microflora by contributing maternal skin organisms along with the ones that nurture some microbes and offer defense from others. While breast milk can be a source of maternally derived commensal and pathogenic microbes, there are very few maternal infectious diseases for which the cessation or interruption of breastfeeding is indicated. When a nursing a mother presents the symptoms of an infectious disease and she has already exposed her baby to the pathogen. Cessation of breastfeeding does not prevent exposure, and rather decrease the infant’s protection that comes through specific maternal antibodies and other protective factors found in human milk. Therefore, common maternal bacterial, fungal and viral infections in which the mother’s health is not compromised are not contraindications to breastfeeding.

Infectious diseases of animals are a major hazard to earthly animal health and welfare and their effective control is necessary for agronomic health, for defending and procuring national and international food supplies and for mitigating rural poverty in developing countries. Some catastrophic livestock diseases are regional in many parts of the world and threats from old and new pathogens continue to rise, with changes to worldwide climate, agricultural approaches and anthropology presenting conditions that are especially supportive for the spread of arthropod-borne diseases into new geographical fields. Zoonotic or phonetic infections that are transmissible either directly or indirectly between animals and humans are on the increase and pose serious additional risks to human health and the recent pandemic status of new influenza A (H1N1) is a topical illustration of the challenge presented by zoonotic viruses.

Gastrointestinal infections are bacterial, viral or parasitic infections that leads to gastroenteritis, which is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, which involves both the stomach and the small intestine. Symptoms of such anomalies are diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Dehydration is the main outcome of gastrointestinal infections, so rehydration is important, but most gastrointestinal infections are self-limited and resolve within a few days. However, in a healthcare setting and in specific populations (newborns/infants, immunocompromized patients or elderly populations), they are potentially serious. Rapid diagnosis, appropriate treatment and infection control steps are eventually important in these contexts.

Skin infections often begin as minute, red bumps, which slowly increase in size. Some bacterial infections are mild and can easily be treated with antibiotics, but some of them require an oral antibiotic. The symptoms of a skin disorders differ depending on its type. Common symptoms include redness of the skin and a rash. One can also experience common symptoms like itching, pain, and tenderness. Skin infections can spread beyond the skin and seep into the bloodstream. This can be life threatening.

Zoonotic diseases are often called as Zoonosis. This type of ailments transfers from an animal or insect to a human being. Some of them do not affect the animal but will sicken a human. Zoonotic diseases can range from minor short-term illness to a major life-changing illness. Certain ones can even be lethal.

Consumption of contaminated foods or beverages generally leads to foodborne diseases. The initial symptoms may occur within minutes to weeks and regularly occur like flu-like symptoms. Symptoms of infected person are vomiting, nausea, diarrhea or fever as the symptoms are flu-like many people may not recognize that the sickness is caused by bacteria or other contaminant in food. Airborne diseases are caused by pathogens that can be transmitted via air. When an infected person sneezes, coughs or talks, spewing nasal and throat secretions into the air airborne diseases can be usually spread. Tuberculosis (TB) is primarily an airborne disease which is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is spread person-to-person via air. This bacterium mainly affects the lungs, but may adversely affect other organs.

An antimicrobial is a substance which kills microorganisms or halts their growth. Antimicrobial medicines can be classified according to the microorganisms they act primarily against them. For instance, antibiotics are used against bacteria on the other hand antifungals are used against fungi. They can also be classified according to their function. Agents that kill microbes are called microbicidal, while the one which only inhibits their growth are termed as biostatic.

Pathogenicity refers to the ability of an organism to cause infections. This capability represents a genetic component of the pathogen and the apparent damage done to the host is a property of the host-pathogen interactions. The commensals and opportunistic pathogens lack this inherent ability to cause disease.

Chemicals, drugs or other substances which are used to treat infectious disease can include either antibacterial or antiviral agents. Along with the discovery, development and clinical use of antibacterial drugs, the mortality from infections has been eventually reduced in past few years. However, antibiotic resistant pathogens have accelerated emergence as a consequence of widespread and injudicious use of antimicrobial drugs, which results in a serious threat to public health.

Occupational health is an integrative field that is concerned with the health, safety and welfare of people who are at work. It mainly focuses on primary prevention of hazards and also deals with all aspects of health and safety in work place. The main motto of this is to keep an eye and promote worker’s health by checking their working capacity and developing a suitable work place where working values is to support health and safety at work.

This field is also known as plant pathology, which is a scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens or environmental conditions. The organisms that cause infectious disease in plants include oomycetes, fungi, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like organisms, phytoplasmas, protozoa, nematodes and parasitic plants. Not included are ectoparasites like mites, vertebrate, insects or other pests that affect plant health by consumption of plant tissues. It also includes the study of disease cycles, economic impact, plant disease epidemiology, plant disease resistance, pathogen identification, disease etiology, how plant diseases affect humans and animals, pathosystem genetics, and management of plant diseases.

Pharmacology is a recently developed wing of biology which is concerned with the study of drug action and drug can be broadly defined as any man-made, natural, or molecule which exerts a biochemical or physiological effect on the cell, tissue, organ, or organism. More prominently, it is the study of the interactions which occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. Pharmaceuticals are the one which have medicinal properties.

The Public Health Practice concentration is organized toward people who are able to enlist in courses that utilize amalgam of on-line, video conference, and in person teaching modalities.  Students selecting the public health practice program should hold an academic background in a public health related field and/or experience working or volunteering within at least one public health program. Work includes subject matter in the crux areas of public health: Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Environmental and occupational health, Public health policy and management, Socio-cultural and behavioral aspects of public health.