Communicable diseases Flashcards
communicable disease definition
illness due to a specific infectious agent or its toxic products
capable of being directly or indirectly transmitted person to person, animal to person, animal to anima or from the environment to person
transmission from the environment
air
water
food
incidence
number of new cases in a given time period
cumulative incidence
expressed as a percent infected per year
incidence density
number per person time of observation
prevalence
number of cases at a given time expressed as a percent at a given time
product of incidence and duration of disease
little use if short term disease
epidemic
unusual occurrence in a community of disease
specific health related behaviour or other health related events clearly in excess of expected occurrence
can occur upon endemic states
endemic
refers to the constant presence of a disease or infectious agent within a given geographic area or population group
usual or expected frequency of disease within a population
exotic disease
those imported into a country in which they don’t otherwise occur
sporadic
scattered
cases occur irregularly, haphazardly from time to time and generally infrequent
few cases and separated widely in places they show no or little connection with each other
not a recognisable common source of infection
may be start of an epidemic
zoonosis
infection trasnmissable under natural conditions from vertebrate animals to people
rabies, plague,bovine, tuberculosis
epizootic
outbreak of disease in an anima population
enzootic
endemic occurring in animals
2 types of epidemic
common source
propagated
common source
point source
rapid rise and fall of incidence
arises from single source such as food poisoning