The National Academies
What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
Prevention & Treatment
Vaccines & Medicines
Medicines have existed in human society probably as long as sickness itself. However, with the advent of the modern pharmaceutical industry, biochemical approaches to preventing and treating disease have acquired a new level of prominence in the evolving relationship between microbes and their human hosts.
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Disease Watchlist
What do you know about infectious disease?
True or False: If you have a cold or the flu, taking antibiotics will help treat the infection.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, not viral infections such as influenza and the common cold. In fact, inappropriate use and overuse of antibiotics contributes to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria.
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Correct!
Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, not viral infections such as influenza and the common cold. In fact, inappropriate use and overuse of antibiotics contributes to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Morbidity
The relative occurrence of a disease or condition that causes illness.
National Academies Press
Search the National Academies Press website by selecting one of these related terms.
Source Material
- Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality (2011)
- The Domestic and International Impacts of the 2009-H1N1 Influenza A Pandemic: Global Challenges, Global Solutions—Workshop Summary (2010)
- 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)
- Financing Vaccines in the 21st Century: Assuring Access and Availability (2003)
