Emerging Infectious Diseases

Diagnosis and Prevention

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.