How Diseases Can Be Infectious

 There are a lot of ways how a disease can be infectious or can be transmitted to one person to the other. It all depends on the microorganism that causes the infectious diseases ability to transfer from one host to another host. Transmission of these microorganisms or pathogens can occur in dissimilar various ways including direct contact, indirect contact, droplet, particle transmission, and contaminated food and through different vectors. Infectious diseases are caused by different infective agents such as bacteria, fungi, viruses or parasites. Signs and symptoms of these infectious diseases may vary from each types but a common sign and symptom that they share includes fever and chills. Some infectious diseases may be asymptomatic or has no signs and symptoms. Going to a doctor might be of help to diagnose it.

It is important to be familiarized with the different types of common transmissions to prevent spread of these infectious diseases. Most common type of transmission is from a previous contact or sex from a person who has the infectious disease, an animal who is carrier or through childbirth. Yes! What you have read is true, a mother can pass a pathogen to her baby by giving birth if this mother is infected by a pathogen or infectious diseases; examples of these diseases are AIDS, Gonorrhea and syphilis. These different ways are called direct contact. There are different ways to prevent a direct contact caused infectious disease which will be talked lately on this article.

 Infectious disease can also be passed along through an indirect contact. Many pathogens and microorganism may linger in different common household equipments or through an inanimate object such as a sponge, a computer, tabletops and rags, a doorknob, a faucet and many more. For example, when you touch a same object that is mentioned above which is grasped or touched by someone ill, or a person who has a flu or cold, you can pick up pathogens that he/she left behind. Then after that, if you touch your eyes, mouth or nose without washing your hands before that, there is a grave possibility that you may be infected. Such transmission is preventable which will also be discussed later.

Infectious diseases can also spread through the air we breathe. When one infected person sneezed or coughed, he/she expels millions of droplets into the surrounding air. If you inhale the droplets, consider yourself infected. This is called droplet transmission. These droplets only travel three feet because the particles of the droplets are too big or large to stay suspended in the air for a long time. Droplet transmissions often occur in crowded places and indoor environments because of the tight spaces which promote the infectious diseases transmission. Infectious diseases that are passed through droplet form rises during winter seasons.

 A similar type if droplet transmission is particle transmission. While droplet transmission only infects from a distance of three feet, particle transmission has the ability to infect from a father distance and can travel in different air currents because these particles are suspended in the air for a long time due to its smaller shape and size. Examples of particle transmissions are tuberculosis and the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). This kind of transmission is deadly because it can infect a person’s lungs and can travel through the blood stream which may cause severe problems of the organs. 

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