The National Academies
What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
Global Challenges
Infectious disease isn’t limited by national borders. Learn how our modern way of life contributes to the spread and emergence of disease.
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Disease Watchlist
What do you know about infectious disease?
True or False: The only way public health agencies can deal with infectious disease is to have good surveillance in place, wait for an outbreak to happen in a human population, and then rush to contain it.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
By identifying pathogens in the animals where they naturally live and monitoring those organisms as they move from animals into people, it may be possible to prevent deadly new infections of animal origin from entering and racing through human populations.
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Correct!
By identifying pathogens in the animals where they naturally live and monitoring those organisms as they move from animals into people, it may be possible to prevent deadly new infections of animal origin from entering and racing through human populations.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Zoonoses
Any disease that can be transmitted from non-human animals to humans.
National Academies Press
Search the National Academies Press website by selecting one of these related terms.
Source Material
- The Causes and Impacts of Neglected Tropical and Zoonotic Diseases: Opportunities for Integrated Intervention Strategies—Workshop Summary (2011)
- Infectious Disease Movement in a Borderless World—Workshop Summary (2010)
- Global Issues in Water, Sanitation, and Health—Workshop Summary (2009)
- Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events: Understanding the Contributions to Infectious Disease Emergence—Workshop Summary (2008)
- The Impact of Globalization on Infectious Disease Emergence and Control: Exploring the Consequences and Opportunities—Workshop Summary (2006)
- The Smallpox Vaccination Program: Public Health in an Age of Terrorism (2005)
