This document covers a wide range of fungi, bacteria and viruses, Their main signs and symptoms and how they can be treated. Furthermore, there is also some public health advice as well as some drugs to help treat infections
• Prevention and management of diseases and other health conditions through
surveillance and the promotion of healthy behaviours, communities and
environments
• Many diseases preventable through single non-medical methods
• Public health communications, vaccination, antibiotic stewardship, needle exchange
system, promotion of safer sex. Examples of public health measures which increase
life expectancy
Epidemiological Transition
1. Age of pestilence and famine- Mortality is high and fluctuating, life expectancy is low
and variable
2. Age of receding pandemics- Mortality progressively declines, with the rate of decline,
life expectancy increases. Population growth is sustained and begins to be exponential
3. Age of degenerative and man-made diseases- Mortality continues to decline and
eventually approaches stability at a relatively low level
Symbiosis
• Any of several living arrangements between numbers of 2 different species, including
mutualism, commensalism and parasitism. Both positive and negative associations are
therefore included, and the members are called symbionts
Pathogenicity
• Ability of a microorganism to multiply and grow within an infected host, at the
expense of the host and without conferring benefits upon the host
• Pathogenic- Capable of causing disease
Commensalism
• Relationship between individuals of 2 species in which one species obtains food or
benefits from the other without harming or benefitting the latter
Epidemiology
• Deals with the incidence, distribution and possible control of diseases and other
factors relating to health.
• Horizontal Transmission- Infected air, food, water, vectors
• Vertical Transmission- Ovum, sperm, placenta, milk contact, vagina
• Incubation period- Building numbers
• Latent period- No symptoms
• Communicability- Infections
,The Public
Types of transmission
• Respiratory or salivary spread- Not readily controllable
• Faecal-oral- Controllable by public health of measures
• Venereal- Difficult to control as social factors are involved
• Vector
• Vertebrate reservoir
• Vector-vertebrate reservoir
,The Public
Introduction to Vaccination
Innate Defences
• Lysozyme in tears and ither secretions dissolves in cell walls
• Normal flora competes with pathogens
• Skin produces antimicrobial fatty acids and its flora inhibit pathogen colonisation
• Rapid pH change between stomach and intestines inhibits microbial growth
• Flushing of UT prevents colonisation
• Removal of particles by rapid passage of air over cilia in nasopharynx
• Mucus, cilia lining trachea suspend and move microorganisms out of the body
• Blood proteins inhibit microbial growth
Innate Immunity (Non-specific immunity)
• The noninducible ability to recognise and destroy an individual pathogen or its
products
• Doesn’t require previous exposure to a pathogen or its products
• Involves recognition of common pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP) on
pathogens
• Mediated by phagocytes
Adaptive Immunity
• Acquired ability to recognise and destroy a particular pathogen or its products
• Dependent on previous exposure to the pathogen or its products
• Directed toward an individual molecular component of the pathogen (antigens)
Antibodies
• Several different classes of antibodies exist and are distinguished from one another
by their amino acid sequence
• Each antibody class has a specific function:
o IgM and IgG found in blood
o IgA found in secretions from mucus membranes
o IgE is involved in parasitic immunity and allergies
, The Public
o IgD is found on surface of B cells
• Provide targets for interaction with proteins of the complement system. Resulting in
destruction of antigens through lysis or opsonisation
• Antibodies can bind to pathogens and toxins and inactivate them
Prevention of infectious disease
• Natural immunity and artificial immunity (vaccination)
B-cells are then stored in lymph nodes after the
person has been immunised so they can be
released rapidly
Artificial Immunity and Immunisation
• Artificial induction of immunity to individual infectious diseases is a major weapon in
the treatment and prevention of diseases
o Artificial active immunity:
▪ Exposure to a controlled dose of harmless antigen to induce formation
of antibodies
o Artificial passive immunity:
▪ Injection of an antiserum derived from an immune individual
o Immunisation:
▪ Process of generating an artificial active immune response by exposure
to an antigen or antigen mixture (vaccine)
• Immunisation with live cells or virus is usually more effective than that with dead or
inactive material
• Most agents used for immunisation are either attenuated or inactivated pathogens
or inactivated forms of microbial products such as toxins
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