Deadly Diseases Among Us Infectious Diseases Emerging infectious

Deadly Diseases Among Us

Infectious Diseases �Emerging infectious diseases = diseases that have not occurred in humans before or that occurred only in small numbers in isolated places. �Re-emerging infectious diseases = diseases that once were major health problems globally or in a particular country and then declined but are becoming a problem in significant numbers

Infectious diseases facts �In developing countries infectious diseases remain the leading cause of death �In the U. S. prevention and control of infectious diseases have so successful that many people view them to be a thing of the past except among very young, very old, or seriously ill people.

Emergence of New Infectious Diseases �E. coli strain caused sever vomiting and diarrhea for patrons of Jack in the Box restaurants in 1993 in Washington State and among children in swimming pools in Atlanta in 1998 �Ebola was first described in 1976 in Zaire Africa with a fatality rate of 50 -90%

Learning to Prevent �Sanitation �Sewage treatment �Vaccination programs �Access to good medical care including antibiotics �Still some diseases are making a comeback!!!

Reasons we see a comeback �Immunization programs are enforced less vigorously �Antibiotic-resistant pathogens are evolving �Some strains of Staphylococcus aureus are resistant to all known antibiotics

Discussion �What disease do you think is the greatest threat to students in this class? �What disease do you think is the greatest threat to the world’s population? �Record your thoughts in your notebooks and also think about why? ? ?

Quiz �Make well-educated guesses if you do not know the answers to this quiz.

Answers to Quiz � 1. C � 2. D � 3. C � 4. B � 5. D � 6. D

Disease Cards Step 1 �Each group of 2 students should get a set of disease cards. �Sort the cards into piles that represent different type of infectious agents. �Record your results and then discuss why scientists find it useful to classify diseases based on type of infectious agents. �Compare your results with the rest of the class

Disease Cards Step 2 �Now resort your cards based on the mechanism of transmission. �Record your results and list reasons why it might be useful to sort diseases this way. �Compare your results with the rest of the class

Disease Cards step 3 �Sort the disease cards according to history of occurrence of the disease – you might make two categories “new” and “old” �Record your results and compare with the rest of the class �Think about how you could rename the categories “old and increasing” or “old and remaining constant”

Disease Cards step 4 �Now classify each disease at Emerging, Re-emerging or Endemic �Emerging = diseases that are truly new, have recently affected enough of a population to be noticed �Health workers are becoming concerned about the emergence of “new” and reemergence of “old” diseases - - Why? ?