Common Infectious Diseases (Part 1)
Common Infectious Diseases (Part 2)
Common Infectious Diseases (Part 3)
Common Infectious Diseases (Part 4)
100
A disease spread mostly through contaminated drinking water and unsanitary conditions. An acute infection of the intestines with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea that can cause death by dehydration.It is endemic in the Indian subcontinent, Russia, and sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 200,000 cases are reported to WHO annually.
What is Cholera?
100
Today it is less of a public health threat, though it continues to be a serious disease that affects many people. Approximately 20,000 people die due to this disease in the United States every year. The virus attacks the human respiratory tract, causing symptoms such as fever, headaches, fatigue, coughing, sore throat, nasal congestion, and body aches.
What is Influenza?
100
It is a disease that has seen a drastic reduction in countries where a vaccine is readily available, but it is still prevalent in developing countries, where most of the 242,000 deaths (out of 30 million cases) it caused in 2006 occurred. Symptoms include high fever, coughing, and a maculo-papular rash; common complications include diarrhea, pneumonia, and ear infections.
What is Measles?
100
This disease causes nearly 2 million deaths every year, and WHO estimates that nearly 1 billion people will be infected between 2000 and 2020 if more effective preventive procedures are not adopted. The bacteria are most often found in the lungs, where they can cause chest pain and a bad cough that brings up bloody phlegm. Other symptoms include fatigue, weight loss, appetite loss, chills, fever, and night sweats.
What is Tuberculosis?
200
It is spread through the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito in Asia and Africa. It can be mild to moderate, and occasionally severe, though it is rarely fatal. Mild cases, which usually affect infants and young children, involve a nonspecific febrile illness, while moderate cases, seen in older children and adults, display high fever, severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, and rash. Severe cases develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever, which involves high fever, hemorrhaging, and sometimes circulatory failure. WHO estimates that 50 million cases appear each year.
What is Dengue?
200
It is a disease spread by the bite of the sandfly. It is found mostly in tropical countries. There are several types that vary in symptoms and severity. First type is the most severe; left untreated, it is always fatal. Its symptoms include fever, weight loss, anemia, and a swelling of the spleen and liver. Second type produces lesions that affect the nose, mouth, and throat and can destroy their mucous membranes. Third type produces skin ulcers, sometimes as many as 200, that cause disability and extensive scarring. Infected people of the fourth type are prone to relapses. Approximately 12 million cases of this disease exist today.
What is Leishmaniasis?
200
It is an infection of the spinal cord. It is usually the result of a viral or bacterial infection. Bacterial version is more severe than viral version and may cause brain damage, hearing loss, and learning disabilities. An estimated 1.2 million cases of bacterial occur every year, over a tenth of which are fatal. Symptoms include severe headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, delirium, photophobia, and a stiff neck.
What is Meningitis?
200
Infection causes an estimated 600,000 deaths worldwide every year. It is most common in developing countries with poor sanitation. The bacteria causes bacillary dysentery. Symptoms include diarrhea with bloody stool, vomiting, and abdominal cramps.
What is Shigellosis?
300
Spread by the tsetse fly, which is common to many African countries. Symptoms include fever, headaches, joint pains, and itching in the early stage, and confusion, sensory disturbances, poor coordination, and disrupted sleep cycles in the second stage. If the disease goes untreated in its first stage, it causes irreparable neurological damage; if it goes untreated in its second stage, it is fatal. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 450,000 cases occur each year.
What is African Trypanosomiasis (“sleeping sickness”)?
300
It is a mosquito-borne disease that affects more than 500 million people annually, causing between 1 and 3 million deaths. It is most common in tropical and subtropical climates and is found in 90 countries—but 90% of all cases are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of its victims are children. The first stage consists of shaking and chills, the next stage involves high fever and severe headache, and in the final stage the infected person's temperature drops and he or she sweats profusely. Infected people also often suffer from anemia, weakness, and a swelling of the spleen. It was almost eradicated 30 years ago; now it is on the rise again.
What is Malaria?
300
It is contracted by contact with blood. This disease is characterized by inflammation of the liver that causes symptoms such as jaundice, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Chronic infections can cause cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer in later years. Approximately 2 billion people are infected with the virus, making it the most common infectious disease in the world today. Over 350 million of those infected never rid themselves of the infection.
What is Hepatitis B?
300
This is a parasitic disease that is endemic in many developing countries. Roughly 200 million people worldwide are infected with the flukeworm, whose eggs cause the symptoms of the disease. Some 120 million of those infected are symptomatic, and 20 million suffer severely from the infection. Symptoms include rash and itchiness soon after becoming infected, followed by fever, chills, coughing, and muscle aches.
What is Schistosomiasis?
400
Highly contagious liver disease spread primarily by the fecal-oral route or by ingestion of contaminated water or food, the number of annual infections worldwide is estimated at 1.4 million. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, jaundice, and dark urine. Although those exposed usually develop lifelong immunity, the best protection against it is vaccination.
What is Hepatitis A?
400
It is a less common, and less severe, form of this liver disease. An estimated 180 million people worldwide are infected with the virus; 3–4 million more are infected every year. The majority of the cases are asymptomatic, even in people who develop chronic infection. Commonly contracted with sharing needles in drug abuse.
What is Hepatitis C?
400
It is usually an infection by the streptococcus or mycoplasma bacteria. These bacteria can live in the human body without causing infection for years, and only surface when another illness has lowered the person's immunity to disease. It occurs after an infection of the upper respiratory tract, such as the flu or cold. Symptoms include: productive cough with mucus, fever, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. It is responsible for more than 100,000 hospitalizations annually, as well as 6 million cases of otitis media and over 60,000 cases of invasive diseases such as meningitis.
What is Pneumonia?
400
This disease is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis worldwide. It kills more than 600,000 children each year, mostly in developing countries. Symptoms include vomiting, watery diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain.
What is Rotavirus?
500
One of the most common causes of waterborne disease in the United States in recent years; it is also found throughout the rest of the world. It is caused by a parasite that spreads when a water source is contaminated, usually with the feces of infected animals or humans. Symptoms include diarrhea, stomach cramps, an upset stomach, and slight fever. Some people do not exhibit any symptoms.
What is Cryptosporidiosis?
500
It is found in tropical and subtropical areas in South America and Africa where the disease is transmitted by the mosquito. This disease causes an estimated 30,000 deaths each year, out of 200,000 cases. The disease has two phases. In the “acute phase,” symptoms include fever, muscle pain, headache, shivers, appetite loss, nausea, and vomiting. This lasts for 3–4 days, after which most patients recover. But 15% will enter the “toxic phase,” in which fever reappears, along with other symptoms, including jaundice; abdominal pain; vomiting; bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes, and stomach; and deterioration of kidney function (sometimes complete kidney failure). Half of all patients in the toxic phase die within two weeks; the other half recover.
What is Yellow Fever?
500
This disease causes an estimated 600,000 deaths annually, out of 12–17 million cases. It is usually spread through food or water contaminated by infected people's feces. Symptoms include a sudden and sustained fever, severe headache, nausea, severe appetite loss, constipation, and sometimes diarrhea. Distinct symptoms are delirium, rose spots on the lower chest and abdomen, intestinal hemorrhage, and encephalitis.
What is Typhoid Fever?
500
This disease is caused by the larvae of Onchocerca volvulus, a parasitic worm that lives in the human body for years. It is endemic in Africa, where nearly all of the 18 million people infected with the disease live. Of those infected, over 6.5 million have developed dermatitis and 270,000 have gone blind. Symptoms include visual impairment, rashes, lesions, intense itching, skin depigmentation, and lymphadenitis.
What is Onchocerciasis (“river blindness”)?
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