How to treat infections

To-Do Date: Feb 24 at 3:30pm

 For most of human history we had very little ability to treat or prevent infectious diseases, which resulted in enormous loss of life and suffering.  Here are some statistics * What has led to this dramatic reversal of childhood mortality?  

Childhood 1901 2000
Childhood mortality  40.6% of all deaths in human populations  0.9% of all deaths in human populations 
Childhood deaths from infectious diseases 51.5% of all deaths in human populations  7.4% of all deaths in human populations 

 

Methods that prevent disease: 

      • basic hygiene such as clean running water, sewage systems, hand washing dramatically prevent transmission of diseases
      • knowledge of diseases and how they are spread- think of coughing into your elbow rather than your hand  and wearing masks
      • vaccinations; induce an immune response without having to have the disease itself

Methods that treat disease

      • antibiotics have been very successful, but antivirals are not as far along.
      • better access to medical care, hospitals, ventilators, etc. 

 

Antibiotics, Antivirals and Vaccines

What are the differences between these three different types of medicine? When watching these videos, keep in mind this question from the study guide

1. When should you use an antibiotic vs. antiviral vs vaccine?  What are some of the bacterial targets of antibiotics? Why wouldn't that work on viruses? Why is it difficult to develop antivirals that kill the virus without damaging the host cell? Why don't antivirals damage the host cell? What is a vaccine? How does it activate our immune system? What is the role of memory cells in vaccination? 

Antibiotics are drugs that are used specifically against bacteria rather than any other type of pathogen. This short video does a nice job of explaining about antibiotics. 

 

 

Antivirals are medicines that can attack and destroy viruses.  This video does a nice job of explaining antiviral medication. I cut parts of the video out since it went into too much detail. 

 

 

 

Vaccines are a very different type of medicine than antibiotics or antivirals. While antibiotics or antivirals treat a patient after they have been infected, vaccines  are designed to prevent the patient from getting sick in the first place.   This video goes over the basics of vaccines.

 

 

 

Next take a mini- quiz to help make sure that you do the reading/watching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Arkwright, P D, and T J David. “Past mortality from infectious diseases and current burden of allergic diseases in England and Wales.” Epidemiology and infection vol. 133,6 (2005): 979-84. doi:10.1017/S0950268805004516