Infectious or communicable diseases are those caused by a biological agent such as virus, bacterium, or parasite. Any such microorganism causes disease either by disrupting a vital body process or by stimulating the immune system of the body to mount a defensive reaction.
Infectious diseases range from common cold, flu, etc to selective infections such as STDs and hepatitis.
Common infectious diseases
Some of the common infectious diseases include:
Lower respiratory infection : These include various pneumonias and diarrheal diseases caused by many different viruses, bacteria, or parasites.
Childhood infectious diseases : These include pertussis, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, measles, and tetanus.
Tropical infectious diseases : These include Chagas disease, dengue fever, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and trypanosomiasis.
Infectious disease treatment
Infectious diseases are initially diagnosis by medical history and physical examination, and imaging (such as X-rays), followed by microbiological culture. In microbiological culture, a growth medium is provided for a particular agent by injection after which it is determined whether bacterial growth occurs. Microbiological culture works for a number of bacteria, for example Staphylococcus or Streptococcus.
However, certain agents cannot be cultured, and requires serology, which involves detecting the antibodies against an infectious agent in the blood.
A recent advancement is directly detecting viral proteins and/or DNA in blood or secretions by PCR (polymerase chain reaction). PCR involves the amplification of viral DNA and its subsequent detection with anti-DNA probes.
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