What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
Prevention & Treatment
Infectious diseases may be an unavoidable fact of life, but there are many strategies available to help us protect ourselves from infection and to treat a disease once it has developed. Some are simple steps that individuals can take. Others are national or worldwide methods of detection, prevention, and treatment. All are critical to keeping communities, nations, and global populations healthy and secure.
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What do you know about infectious disease?
Of the more than 1,700 known viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens that infect people, how many have come from animals?
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
More than half of the known pathogens that infect people have come from animals. Of the 37 new infectious diseases identified in just the past 30 years, two-thirds sprang from animals.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
More than half of the known pathogens that infect people have come from animals. Of the 37 new infectious diseases identified in just the past 30 years, two-thirds sprang from animals.
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Correct!
More than half of the known pathogens that infect people have come from animals. Of the 37 new infectious diseases identified in just the past 30 years, two-thirds sprang from animals.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Peptic Ulcer
- An open sore that develops on the inner lining of the stomach or upper small intestine.
National Academies
Search the National Academies Press website by selecting one of these related terms.
Source Material
- Infectious Disease Movement in a Borderless World—Workshop Summary (2010)
- BioWatch and Public Health Surveillance: Evaluating Systems for the Early Detection of Biological Threats—Abbreviated Version, Summary (2009)
- Sustaining Global Surveillance and Response to Emerging Zoonotic Diseases (2009)
- Global Infectious Disease Surveillance and Detection: Assessing the Challenges, Finding Solutions—Workshop Summary (2007)
- Ending the War Metaphor: The Changing Agenda for Unraveling the Host-Microbe Relationship—Workshop Summary (2006)
- The Impact of Globalization on Infectious Disease Emergence and Control: Exploring the Consequences and Opportunities—Workshop Summary (2006)
- Microbial Threats to Health: Emergence, Detection, and Response (2003)
