Infectious Diseases: Types, Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

Infectious diseases are those diseases that can be easily transmitted from one carrier to another. Infectious diseases are also known as contagious diseases, and there are a number of them out there today. Most infectious diseases are quite curable while some are not. In this write up, we will be covering certain areas like types of infectious diseases, causes of infectious diseases, symptoms, diagnosis, treatments and cures.

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Types of Infectious diseases

Hepatitis-B

This is undoubtedly the most common infectious disease known today. This infectious disease is said to affect more than 2 billion people all over the world. About 350 million people are known to be affected by the very chronic type of hepatitis-B.

• Symptoms: Hepatitis-B is characterized by a number of symptoms, and some of the most common ones include nausea, jaundice, fatigue, and some long-term complications like liver cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, etc.
• Treatment: There are certain treatment techniques that have been found to be quite effective for the treatment of Hepatitis-B. Some of these methods include The Gilead Sciences therapies and Dynavax technologies.

Malaria

This is one infectious disease that is more prevalent in children mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. This mosquito-borne disease is known to affect more than 500million people yearly. Malaria cause between 1 million and 3 million deaths annually, which makes it one of the most deadly infectious diseases on an annual basis. The female anopheles mosquito is known to be the vector of this infectious deadly disease.

• Symptoms: The most common symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, catarrh, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, loss of appetite, etc.
• Treatments: Increased public awareness in both tropical and subtropical regions have led to a reduction in the spread of this disease. In 1980, the US army invented an anti-malarial drug known as Lariam, but today there are several of such drugs in the market to combat the ailment with. The most common anti-malarial drugs known today include arthemeter, Lumefantrine, choloroquine’

Hepatitis-C

This is a less chronic form of hepatitis. About 4 million new cases of this disease are recorded annually, which makes it less rampant than its B counterpart. There are over 180 million people suffering from this disease all over the world. This disease can deteriorate to liver cancer with time.

• Treatment: The most common method for the treatment of this disease is by the use of pegylated interferon and a ribavirin; the treatment lasts between 24 to 48 weeks.

Dengue

It would appear that the only thing mosquitoes are good at is spreading diseases in humans. Dengue is another infections disease that finds its way from one host to the other through the help of the Aedes mosquito. About 50million people get infected with this diseases annually, mostly in Asia and Africa.

• Symptoms: The most common symptoms of this disease are severe headaches, high fever, muscle and joint pains. It hardly results to death of the victims.
• Treatment: When it comes to treating Dengue, there are no specific drugs developed for its treatments and cures. Tylenon is mostly used to minimize the symptoms, while severe cases may necessitate blood transfusion or IVS.

Tuberculosis

TB has been described by the world health organization as the second most deadliest killer diseases globally following AIDS. This infectious disease is caused by a certain bacteria in the lungs.

• Symptoms: TB is characterized by bad cough and severe chest pains.
• Treatment: This is best done at a qualified hospital and under the supervision of an experienced medical doctor.

Other kinds of infectious diseases as well as the worst killer plagues of all time that are not listed here but available online.