Can infectious disease be cured

Disease symptoms are one way to quickly diagnose the presence of a disease at the individual or community level. The smallpox eradication campaign benefited from the characteristic sores and rashes caused by VARV infection.

These distinct symptoms allowed health officials across the world to easily and effectively diagnose patients and track disease epidemiology in their communities. As another example, poliomyelitis , caused by poliovirus PV , produces characteristic, rapid-onset paralysis in a subset of patients that has been used as a marker for active community transmission. The more sophisticated the methods of disease diagnosis, the less likely that disease will be eradicated.

Malaria, a disease that has been targeted for elimination, historically required skilled medical professionals able to interpret patient blood smears to identify infected individuals. The lack of trained parasitologists in endemic areas proved to be one of the reasons why the s campaign to eradicate malaria failed. Disease-causing pathogens can sometimes infect multiple species, crossing phylogenetic boundaries. While the virus was able to infect and cause severe disease in humans, humans were not the original host for this virus.

Although successful containment strategies eliminated transmission of SARS among people, the continued presence of an animal reservoir means that SARS is not yet an eradicated disease. Many arthropods are vectors for human diseases and show little to no symptoms from pathogens that cause pathology in people. For example, dengue fever, caused by the dengue flavivirus DENV , is transmitted to people through mosquito vectors. Even if diseases are eliminated in human populations, their presence in non-human reservoirs or vectors allows for reinfection and further spread.

Because the smallpox variola virus only infects humans , it was a good target for eradication. Human-to-human transmission could be interrupted through targeted vaccination campaigns. Similarly, poliovirus, which also only infects humans, was eliminated in countries. With transmission of wildtype polio limited to Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, an official declaration of eradication is within sight.

In contrast, yellow fever, caused by yellow fever virus YFV , is reemerging. In Nigeria, vaccination efforts against YFV halted transmission and caused incidence to drop to zero in Unfortunately, decreased vaccination rates, along with the existence of an arthropod vector and primate reservoirs, caused an outbreak of yellow fever in September Nigeria has experienced seasonal yellow fever outbreaks ever since.

There is no question that smallpox affected the global community. Many of the diseases that have been eradicated smallpox and rinderpest or targeted for elimination by WHO, such as polio , malaria , measles and rubella , are present in multiple countries. However, as a disease approaches eradication, disease incidence becomes more geographically restricted. This phenomenon has multiple effects.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and is spread through contact with the stool feces of an infected person or droplets from a sneeze or cough. Respiratory syncytial virus RSV is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages and can be serious, especially for infants and older adults.

Rotavirus is a highly contagious virus that infects nearly all young children and is one of the most common and serious causes of severe diarrhea in the US.

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. The virus stays inactive in the body for life and can reactivate years, or even decades later, causing shingles. Tetanus, commonly called lockjaw, is a bacterial disease that affects the nervous system. It is contracted through cuts or wounds that become contaminated with tetanus bacteria.

Whooping cough also called pertussis , is a serious infection that spreads easily from person to person. The infection causes coughing spells that are so severe that it can be hard to breathe, eat, or sleep. Approach to the patient with an infectious disease. In: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. New York, N. Clean hands count for safe health care.

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