Our Families Infectious Disease History (Part 2): Epidemiology

This assignment, titled "Our Families Infectious Disease History (Part 2)," delves into the epidemiology of infectious diseases by analyzing family health histories. It addresses questions about common diseases, seasonal variations in disease spread, and less common infections across different age groups. The assignment also speculates on how the disease landscape might differ in less developed regions, highlighting the potential dominance of diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis due to limited resources and management challenges. The analysis draws conclusions from a class list to identify prevalent infections like influenza and discusses factors influencing disease occurrence, referencing key works on infectious disease dynamics and global trends. This student-contributed assignment is available on Desklib, where students can access a variety of study tools and resources.

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.

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Our Families Infectious Disease History
(Part 2)
Part 2
Q 1. From the chart, we can conclude that influenza has had an impact on most people
aged between in most families. It is also the disease that most families experience with one of
the family members aged 19 and above. Generally, influenza has been the most infectious
disease in most families.
Q 2. Some diseases are more common at given times than at other times. This
variation in the spread of these infections is mostly caused by seasonal changes. From our
list, diseases like Malaria, Mumps, and Anthrax appear at different rates in different age sets.
Q 3 At some times, there are diseases which are less common than others. Disease
like poliomyelitis, rubies, and Lyme disease are not common in the middle age.
Q 4. If this list was for a case of a less developed world, most diseases could be highly
infectious. Disease like AIDs, Malaria, and tuberculosis would be the dominant infectious
diseases for this matter. The less developed countries have fewer incentives to prevent the
occurrence of sicknesses since they have little resources and also face poor management by
the leaders. The countries also have high dependency level hence any encroachment of a
disease cannot be tackled easily due to increased dependency on the working class.

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Our Families Infectious Disease History
(Part 2)
References
Anderson, R. M., & May, R. M. (2015). Infectious diseases of humans: dynamics and
control. London: Oxford university press.
Hethcote, H. W. (2014). The mathematics of infectious diseases. SIAM review, 46(6), 143-
156.
Jones, K. E., Patel, N. G., & Levy, M. A. (2016). Global trends in emerging infectious
diseases. Nature, 132(6), 456-513.