What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
How Infection Works
Microbes occupy all of our body surfaces, including the skin, gut, and mucous membranes. Most don’t do us any harm—in fact, many help us survive. But there are certain bacteria, viruses, and other microbial life forms that can cause illness or even death. Here we learn the basics about microbes and the fascinating relationship we have with them.
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What do you know about infectious disease?
Which deadly pathogen cannot be found naturally in the wild:
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Smallpox cannot be found naturally in the wild. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated from the globe in 1980, after an 11-year WHO vaccination campaign—the first human disease to be eliminated as a naturally spread contagion. Today, the virus remains only in laboratory stockpiles.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Smallpox cannot be found naturally in the wild. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated from the globe in 1980, after an 11-year WHO vaccination campaign—the first human disease to be eliminated as a naturally spread contagion. Today, the virus remains only in laboratory stockpiles.
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Correct!
Smallpox cannot be found naturally in the wild. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated from the globe in 1980, after an 11-year WHO vaccination campaign—the first human disease to be eliminated as a naturally spread contagion. Today, the virus remains only in laboratory stockpiles.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Recombinant Technology
The process that allows technicians to create artificial pieces of DNA in which two or more DNA sequences, often from separate organisms, are combined in ways that would not normally occur naturally.
National Academies
Search the National Academies Press website by selecting one of these related terms.
Source Material
- Ending the War Metaphor: The Changing Agenda for Unraveling the Host-Microbe Relationship—Workshop Summary (2006)
- Microbial Evolution and Co-Adaptation: A Tribute to the Life and Scientific Legacies of Joshua Lederberg (2009)
- The Impact of Globalization on Infectious Disease Emergence and Control: Exploring the Consequences and Opportunities—Workshop Summary (2006)
- Infectious Disease Movement in a Borderless World—Workshop Summary (2010)
- Microbial Threats to Health: Emergence, Detection, and Response (2003)