Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 2
CONTROL OF DISEASES OF THE AIR
AND LAND
NABARUN DASGUPTA
School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Background
Communicable diseases are illnesses due to a specific infectious agent or its
toxic products. They arise through transmission of that agent or its products from
an infected person, animal, or inanimate reservoir to a susceptible host, either
directly or indirectly through an intermediate plant or animal host, vector, or the
inanimate environment.
1
Illness may be caused by pathogenic bacteria, bacterial
toxins, viruses, protozoa, spirochetes, parasitic worms (helminths), poisonous
plants and animals, chemical poisons, prions (infectious proteinlike particles)
rickettsias, and fungi, including yeasts and molds. In this text, vectorborne and
airborne communicable diseases are discussed under arthropodborne diseases
and respiratory diseases; noncommunicable diseases will also be discussed. This
chapter concludes with a basic description of definitions and typical studies and
measures used in epidemiology. The terms
communicable disease
and
infectious
disease
are used interchangeably.
The communicable diseases (malaria, yellow fever, pneumonia, human
immunodeficiency virus [HIV], tuberculosis, cholera, schistosomiasis, measles,
onchocerciasis, intestinal parasites, and diarrheal diseases) and malnutrition have
traditionally been considered the core health problems of developing countries,
many of which are aggravated by contaminated drinking water, unhygienic
housing, and poor sanitation. In developed countries, the chronic diseases
(disease of the heart, cerebrovascular disease, cancer, diabetes) and injuries
ND would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank L. Hannah Gould for her exceptional contribu-
tions to this chapter and sustained assistance in providing updated sources.
