apes module 56 - human diseases

• infectious disease: a disease caused by a pathogen
• acute disease: rapidly impairs an organism's functioning
• chronic disease: slowly impairs an organism's functioning
• pathogen: a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that causes disease
• more than three-quarters of world deaths are caused by diseases
• risk factors vary between developing and developed countries due to affluence
• describe risk factors for disease in developing countries


  poverty: unsafe drinking water, poor air quality, poor sanitation, malnutrition
• describe risk factors for disease in developed countries

  increased availability of tobacco, less active lifestyles, poor nutrition, overeating which causes high blood pressure and obesity
• vector borne

  a disease resulting from an infection transmitted to humans by vectors like mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas
• historically, what is the greatest killer of humankind?

  malaria
• campaigns against malaria intend to eradicate mosquitoes by destroying wetlands and administering insecticides like DDT
• wetland habitats allow mosquitoes to breed
• effective and available medication has significantly reduced the deadliness of tuberculosis
• epidemic: a situation in which a pathogen causes a rapid increase or decrease
• pandemic: an epidemic that occurs over a large geographic region