What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
Global Challenges
National borders do not block the advance of infectious diseases. Learn how our modern way of life contributes to the spread and emergence of 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
- Exoskeleton
An external skeleton that protects and supports an organism, in contrast to an internal endoskeleton.
National Academies
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)
