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Introduction to the lesson
Infectious diseases are an important part of pathology. Although relatively easily curable, infectious diseases are generally more prevalent in poorer countries which do not have the infrastructure to treat patients and prevent the spread of the disease. Thus, many people die "preventable" deaths. A big part of the work of organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) is to control the spread of infectious diseases. In this lesson, we will define infectious diseases and begin to look at the issues associated with infectious diseases in general. In the next few lessons we will focus in more detail on specific diseases.
Reading
Read the section “Roll back Malaria” in the purple box on p.199 of your text book.
Thinking it through
- What do we mean when we say a disease is endemic? Pandemic?
- Search online for ‘roll back malaria’
- Do you think malaria is a problem disease in South Africa? Why? Why not?
- Why do you think there needs to be a cooperation between NGO (non-government organisations) and governments?
Infectious diseases
Read the section from p.199-200 of your text book.
Learning Activity 1
Answer the following questions in your exercise book.
- Answer Question 10.1 on p.199.
- Summarize the differences and similarities between infectious and non-infectious diseases.
- Do some internet research. Is there a difference and, if there is, what is the difference between an "infectious disease" and a "communicable disease"?
- Why is it important to know the transmission cycle of an infectious disease?
Worldwide importance of infectious diseases
Read the section "Worldwide importance of infectious diseases" on p.200 of your text book.
Learning Activity 2
Answer the following questions in your exercise book.
- Study Table 10.1 on p.200.
- Which diseases are caused by viruses? What are each of the viruses called?
- Which diseases are caused by bacteria? What are the bacteria called?
- What other organism is a causative agent of one of the infectious diseases? What is this? Which disease does it cause?
- Which of these diseases occur in South Africa?
- Which of these diseases are vaccinated against in South Africa?
- What is the difference between incidence and prevalence?
- What is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic? Was the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa an epidemic or a pandemic?
- Diseases such as measles have been relatively well controlled in high infrastructure countries by the use of the MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccination. However, there is a popular idea that the MMR vaccination (as well as other vaccinations, such as the polio vaccinations) plays a role in causing autism. Do some research on the effects of this theory. What is the dominant conclusion in medical research regarding whether there is a causal link between the MMR vaccination and autism? What could be the effects of the popularity of this anti-vaccination sentiment?
Definitions and review
Definitions
- Infectious disease
- Pathogen
- Non-infectious disease
- Disease
- Carriers
- Transmission cycle
- Vaccination
- Causative agents
- Endemic
- Incidence
- Prevalence
- Epidemic
- Pandemic
- Mortality
Mindmap
Start a new mindmap for chapter ten and add this section to it.