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?
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What do you know about infectious disease?
True or False: Major pharmaceutical companies have great interest in dedicating resources to the antibiotics market because these short-course drugs are more profitable than drugs that treat chronic conditions and lifestyle ailments, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Drugs that treat chronic conditions and lifestyle ailments are more profitable. Modern medicine needs new kinds of antibiotics to treat drug-resistant infections, but antibiotic research and development are expensive, risky, and time-consuming.
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Correct!
Drugs that treat chronic conditions and lifestyle ailments are more profitable. Modern medicine needs new kinds of antibiotics to treat drug-resistant infections, but antibiotic research and development are expensive, risky, and time-consuming.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Sperm Cell
The male gamete, or sex cell, which carries the hereditary material of the male parent and unites with the female egg cell during sexual reproduction.
