Our Families Infectious Disease History (Part 2)

Our Families Infectious Disease History
(Part 2)
Abdulaziz Hakeem
Assignment 3
Epidemiology of infectious diseases
The infectious diseases were the primary cause of serious health issues globally until
the birth of the 20th century when chronic diseases started to dominate the scene in the DCs.
Plagues and cholera devastated the European cities for many years. Infectious diseases are
said to be important since they determined the historical civilization of human beings. The
terminology and concept of infectious disease did not evolve from a specified body of
thoughts or from a given discipline but was born from a complex set of scientific fields that
investigated their agents, causes, determinants, and prevention. After the end of the Second
World War, Sir McFarland Burnett confirmed that most challenges with infectious diseases
were solved. Worldwide history is intertwined with infectious diseases with the effects that
infectious diseases had on the human population. Evidence of smallpox was found in an
Egyptian mummy which was 3000 years old (Anderson & May, 2015). Researchers wrote

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Our Families Infectious Disease History
(Part 2)
about the spread of infectious diseases through air and water. The development of a
microscope led to the discovery of micro-organisms and vaccines that would later be used to
control and prevent diseases. The 20th century came with the invention of antibiotics and
chemotherapy of infectious diseases. Dependence on vaccination programs increased with the
aim of preventing infectious diseases (Hethcote, 2014). Today, we are aware of the
emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases and human beings have discovered a cure
for most of these diseases.
The occurrence of infectious disease in the human population could be endemic form
or in epidemic form. When an epidemic is generalized, it is called pandemic and when it
involves a small geographical area, it is called an outbreak (Jones, Patel, & Levy, 2016).
When it involves non-human beings, it is called epizootic. Individuals who are infected by a
disease bit do not clinically show any signs of infection are called carriers.