Human Infectious Diseases Coursework Example

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Human Infectious Diseases
Infectious diseases are diseases that can be passed between individuals. Keeling & Pejman (3) define human infectious illnesses as those that can be passed on directly or indirectly from an individual to another and by parasites, viruses, bacteria, or fungi.
Direct transmissions of diseases occur when the transfer of the organism is through physical contact between the infected person and another individual. These physical contacts could be through saliva, kissing, touching, sexual intercourse or sweat. An example of such disease is gonorrhea which is transmitted sexually and is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gonorrhea affects the urinary tract and the membranes of the mouth, throat, and rectum of an individual that is sexually involved with an infected person. Symptoms in men include white, green or yellow urethral discharge, painful urination, anal discharge, bleeding when passing stools among others. Women experience pain during sexual intercourse, yellow or green vaginal discharge, sore and swollen joints, and heavy and painful periods among others. Gonorrhea is treated with antibiotics and abstaining from sexual activity until completion of the treatment. It’s a significant public health issue recognized by World Health Organization.
Vector Transmission of a Disease occurs when a disease the transmission is through a mechanical or biological vector. In case of mechanical vector, the animal transmits infection from one host to another without being infected itself while biological transmission takes place when the microorganism reproduces within the vector.

Biological vectors include mosquitoes, ticks, lice, and mites. For example, yellow fever is caused by yellow fever virus transmitted by a bite from infected Aedes aegypti mosquito. Symptoms include fever, jaundice, bleeding, liver and kidney failure, slow heart rate, muscle aches in your back and knees, sensitivity to light among others. Yellow fever has no cure. Its prevention is through vaccination of adults and children over nine months for more than ten years. The rise in air travel increases the chances of contracting the disease and its spread. Many countries now recommend travelers to have proof of the vaccination before traveling.
The human infectious diseases have a significant impact on the global economies and the public health. Various control methods have been proposed to control mosquitoes as solutions to control contagious diseases.
Work Cited
Keeling, Matt J., and Pejman Rohani. Modeling infectious diseases in humans and animals.
Princeton University Press, 2011.