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

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.

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%

Sanitation Sewage treatment Vaccination programs Access to good medical care

including antibiotics Still some diseases are making a

comeback!!!

Immunization programs are enforced less vigorously

Antibiotic-resistant pathogens are evolving

Some strains of Staphylococcus aureus are resistant to all known antibiotics

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???

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

1. C 2. D 3. C 4. B 5. D 6. D

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

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

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”

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 re-emergence of “old” diseases - - Why??