What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
New infectious diseases are emerging and old ones are appearing in new places around the globe. What’s behind this trend? And to what extent has human behavior amplified the problem? The National Academies, advisers to the nation in science, engineering, and medicine, provide the information you need to understand this complex topic.
Infection
Microbes are all around us. Most don’t do any harm, and many are beneficial, but what about the few that cause infection? Learn the basics.
Threats
Certain aspects of disease are a particular threat to us today. What are some of the things we're most concerned about in the United States?
Challenges
National borders do little to block the path of infectious disease. Learn how our modern way of life contributes to the emergence and spread of diseases.
Prevention
What do we need to do—as individuals and as a society—to stave off the threat of emerging infectious disease?
Explore Other Topics
What do you know about infectious disease?
True or False: Antibiotics work by introducing an agent that resembles a disease-causing microbe, thus stimulating the body's immune system to recognize it as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that it can more easily identify and destroy any similar, disease-causing microbes that it later encounters.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
The above describes how vaccines work. Antibiotics work by either killing bacteria or stopping them from reproducing, allowing the body's natural defenses to eliminate the pathogens.
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Correct!
The above describes how vaccines work. Antibiotics work by either killing bacteria or stopping them from reproducing, allowing the body's natural defenses to eliminate the pathogens.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Climate Change
The process of shifting from one prevailing state in regional or global climate to another. Climate change is typically the preferred term over “global warming” because it helps to convey that the characteristics of climate change are not limited to rising temperatures.
