Infectious Disease: Nature, Transmission, and Prevention

Running head: INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Introduction:
An infectious disease is a disease which is caused by the invasion of a host by agents
whose activities are harmful to the host tissues and further can be transmitted to other
individuals. Microbes tahr are capable of causing disease is called pathogen. As discussed by
Crobach et al. (2016), there are 1400 human pathogens, 60% of which are transmitted to
human zoonotically and depends on the animal reservoir. Among emerging infections, 73% of
the infection are zoonotic infections, indicating the fact that human animal interaction is the
potential risk factor for the infections (Esposito et al. 2016). This paper will discuss the nature of
the infectious disease and how biological systems, behavioral, and the drug can prevent disease.
Discussion:
Ranges of microorganism:
Infectious disease can be devastating and fetal sometimes to the host. Although
microorganism that causes disease are under the spotlight of research, it is important to note that
not all microorganism are able to cause infection in host disease. As discussed by Crobach et al.
(2016), there are a variety of microorganisms which causes infectious disease resulted in an
increase in the mortality rate. The pathogenic microorganism is of four types which include
bacteria, virus, fungi, and protozoa.
 Bacteria are microscopic single cell microorganism which thrives in a diverse
environment and has the ability to cause infection by transmitting to the host (Nitzan et
al. 2015).
 Virus is an infectious agent typically consists of nucleic acid and protein coat that is able
to multiply to cause disease only within the living host.

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INFECTIOUS DISEASE
 Fungus is a member of eukaryotic organisms which include mold, yeasts.
 Protozoa is single-celled eukaryotes either free-living or parasitic. These different
ranges of microorganisms have a history of evolution which further induces potential
outbreaks.
Figure: Ranges of microorganism
Source: (Nitzan et al. 2015).
Mechanism of causing disease:
The infectious disease is usually characterized by the dominant organ involved. To be
infectious a microorganism must enter into the human body. However, the primary aim of the
microorganism is not causing disease, rather multiply for living. In order to multiply, a
microorganism is required to invade the human organism (Golding et al. 2016). The infection

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INFECTIOUS DISEASE
occurs when microorganism such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungus invades the human
organ to multiply and it potentially disrupts the normal function of human by damaging cells of
the body (Nitzan et al. 2015). Consequently, the damaged cells with disrupted functionality
exhibit in the signs and symptoms of the disease. These microorganisms are able to transmit
from one host to another host by direct or indirect contact, resulting in spreading of disease
Figure: Mechanism of causing disease
Source: (Golding et al. 2016)
Transmission through vector:
Semenza and Suk (2017), stated that a vector is a living organism which transmits an
infectious agent from an infected animal to a human or animal. The biological vectors such as
mosquitoes, ticks, fleas are able to carry infectious pathogens which can be transferred from one
to another. The microorganisms’ shelter in the saliva of the vectors and the transmission
mechanism usually occurs when these vectors bite the host. In the United Kingdom, there are
currently 14 vectors borne infectious diseases which are a national public health concern