Out of curiosity how does the cdc classify infectious disease?

Bradbury

I have been reading about the Black Death of the 14th century and became curious as to how a disease is classified and the guidelines used to do so. Is the classification contingent upon mortality rate, number of persons infected, length between infection and onset of symptoms? The plague wiped out 1/3 of Europe's population, but how would it be classified now? I know the common cold could once have been a death sentence, but now we treat it with over the counter meds.



Hedley

An infectious disease is any disease whose etiological agent can be spread from one source to other people, plants or animals. Infectiousness (communicability) has nothing to do with virulence, incidence or incubation. You mentioned the common cold. Yes, people survive it routinely. But it is still infectious because the virus can be spred from person to person. Other infectious diseases aren't spread person to person, but rather through pointsources or exposures, like mad cow (Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease) via food poisoning.



Valley Head

Ebola is a 4 because it is highly virulent, highly communicable and has a very high case-fatality. HIV is much lower because it is not as easy to contract (takes more effort to acquire, higher infectious dose) while new treatments have significantly reduced case fataility. Report Abuse



Van Tassell

As for bub. plague, it has a much lower case-fatality because of available tx. pneu. plague rates higher because of its means of transmission and higher case-fatality. Report Abuse



Rebersburg

So essentially, the criteria for rating the threat of a disease include:1. Pathogenicity - does it make you sick?2. Virulence - how sick does it make you? Report Abuse



Summerfield

3. Treatment/cure availability - can it be treated or cured?4. Case-fatality rate - how often will it kill?5. Mode of transmission - does it spread by air, food, sex, etc.? Report Abuse



Pittsfield

(stupid 300 char limit, and it doesn't even tell you how many you've used!) Report Abuse



Cross Roads

Time this week's issue, dated June 26th, "Surviving the New Killer Bug." www. time. com. We can't brush aside these open wounds, mysterious illnesses, and antibiotic resistant bacteria any longer. Has the CDC done a report similar toTime? Nowhere in the article do they cite the CDC. Report Abuse



Hancock

The "new killer bug" isn't new at all. We've known about antibiotic resistance for a long time. MRSA is now out in the community, no longer a nosocomial infection. Report Abuse



Shelby

CDC does reports all the time. Check out the MMWR, the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. They run articles on emerging infections all the time. Or look up "antibiotic resistance" or "nosocomial infections" in Google or PubMed. Report Abuse