Infectious Diseases
Infectious diseases are typically able to be spread from person to person, either directly (e.g., via skin contact) or indirectly (e.g., via contaminated food or water). The human body’s primary defense against such threats is its immune system, supplemented by today’s medical drugs.
Infectious Diseases Encyclopedia Articles
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influenza
Influenza, an acute viral infection of the upper or lower respiratory tract that is marked by fever, chills, and a generalized feeling of weakness and pain in the muscles, together with varying degrees...
smallpox
Smallpox, acute infectious disease that begins with a high fever, headache, and back pain and then proceeds to an eruption on the skin that leaves the face and limbs covered with cratered pockmarks, or...
plague
Plague, infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas. Plague was the cause of some of the most-devastating epidemics in history....
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), infectious disease that is caused by the tubercle bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In most forms of the disease, the bacillus spreads slowly and widely in the lungs, causing the...
cholera
Cholera, an acute infection of the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae and characterized by extreme diarrhea with rapid and severe depletion of body fluids and salts. Cholera has often...
sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease (STD), any disease (such as syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, or a genital form of herpes simplex) that is usually or often transmitted from person to person by direct sexual contact....
pneumonia
Pneumonia, inflammation and consolidation of the lung tissue as a result of infection, inhalation of foreign particles, or irradiation. Many organisms, including viruses and fungi, can cause pneumonia,...