What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
Prevention & Treatment
Vaccines & Medicines
Medicines have existed in human society probably as long as sickness itself. However, with the advent of the modern pharmaceutical industry, biochemical approaches to preventing and treating disease have acquired a new level of prominence in the evolving relationship between microbes and their human hosts.
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What do you know about infectious disease?
True or False: Not all microbes are harmful to humans.
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Correct!
Not all microbes are harmful to humans. In fact, many of them protect us, helping our bodies function properly and competing with harmful organisms in an eternal contest for habitable space in or on our bodies. Although the microorganisms that cause disease often receive more attention, most microorganisms do not cause illness.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Not all microbes are harmful to humans. In fact, many of them protect us, helping our bodies function properly and competing with harmful organisms in an eternal contest for habitable space in or on our bodies. Although the microorganisms that cause disease often receive more attention, most microorganisms do not cause illness.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Category A Agents
A class of biological agents that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention views as posing the highest priority risk to U.S. national security.
National Academies
Search the National Academies Press website by selecting one of these related terms.
Source Material
- Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality (2011)
- The Domestic and International Impacts of the 2009-H1N1 Influenza A Pandemic: Global Challenges, Global Solutions—Workshop Summary (2010)
- The Impact of Globalization on Infectious Disease Emergence and Control: Exploring the Consequences and Opportunities—Workshop Summary (2006)
- The Smallpox Vaccination Program: Public Health in an Age of Terrorism (2005)
- Financing Vaccines in the 21st Century: Assuring Access and Availability (2003)