Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
The Magnitude and Diversity
of Infectious Diseases
“All interest in disease and death is only another expression of interest in life.”
Thomas Mann
THE IMPORTANCE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN TERMS
OF HUMAN MORTALITY
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, on July 20, 2011, the USA population
was 311 806 379, and the world population was 6 950 195 831 [2]. The U.S.
Central Intelligence agency estimates that the USA crude death rate is 8.36
per 1000 and the world crude death rate is 8.12 per 1000 [3]. This translates
to 2.6 million people dying in 2011 in the USA, and 56.4 million people
dying worldwide. These numbers, calculated from authoritative sources,
correlate surprisingly well with the widely used rule of thumb that 1% of the
human population dies each year.
How many of the world's 56.4 million deaths can be attributed to infectious
diseases? According to World Health Organization, in 1996, when the global
death toll was 52 million, “Infectious diseases remain the world's leading cause
of death, accounting for at least 17 million (about 33%) of the 52 million
people who die each year” [4]. Of course, only a small fraction of infections
result in death, and it is impossible to determine the total incidence of infec-
tious diseases that occur each year, for all organisms combined. Still, it is
useful to consider some of the damage inflicted by just a few of the organisms
that infect humans.
Malaria infects 500 million people. About 2 million people die each year
from malaria [4].
About 2 billion people have been infected with Mycobacterium tuber-
culosis. Tuberculosis kills about 3 million people each year [4].
Each year, about 4 million children die from lung infections, and about
3 million children die from infectious diarrheal diseases [4]. Rotaviruses are
one of many causes of diarrheal disease (Group III Viruses, Chapter 41).
