Subject:- Community

Health Nursing

Topic:- Principles of
Communicable Diseases
Epidemiology
PRESENTED BY,
MR. KAILASH NAGAR
ASSIST. PROF.
DEPT. OF COMMUNITY HEALTH NSG.
DINSHA PATEL COLLEGE OF NURSING, NADIAD
Objectives
• Definition of epidemiology
• The epidemiologic triad
• Definition of communicable diseases
• Importance of studying communicable diseases
epidemiology
• Terminology
• Dynamics of disease transmission (chain of
infection):
– Human reservoir or source
– Modes of transmission
– Susceptible host
 Definition of Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of the distribution
and determinants of health-related states
and events in populations, and the
application of this study to control health
problems (Last, 1983).
 Epidemiologic triad
• Demographic characteristics
• Biological characteristics
• Socioeconomic characteristics
Host

Agent Environment
• Biological agents • Physical environment
• Physical agents • Biological environment
• Chemical agents • Social environment
• Nutrient agents
• Mechanical agents
• Social agents
Infectious Disease Model

Pathogen
Host
disease

Environment
Definition of communicable diseases

• A communicable disease is an illness due to a

specific infectious (biological) agent or its toxic
products capable of being directly or indirectly
transmitted from man to man, from animal to
man, from animal to animal, or from the
environment (through air, water, food, etc..) to
man.
Importance of Studying Communicable Diseases
Epidemiology

• Changes of the pattern of infectious diseases

• Discovery of new infections
• The possibility that some chronic diseases
have an infective origin.
Terminology and Definitions
• Infection • Exotic
• Contamination • Sporadic
• Infestation • Attack rate
• Contagious disease • Primary/secondary cases
• Incidence and prevalence of • Zoonosis, epizootic and
infectious diseases enzootic
• Epidemic • Nosocomial infection
• Endemic • Opportunistic infection
• Hyperendemic • Eradication
• holoendemic • Elimination
• Pandemic
 Terminology and Definitions (cont.)
• Virulence • Incubation period
• Reproductive rate of • Infectivity period
infection • Serial interval
• Host • Latent period
• Vector (source) • Transmission Probability
• Reservoir ratio
Infection
• Infection is the entry and development or
multiplication of an infectious agent in the body of
man or animals. An infection does not always cause
illness.
• There are several levels of infection (Gradients of
infection):
– Colonization (S. aureus in skin and normal nasopharynx)
– Subclinical or inapparent infection (polio)
– Latent infection (virus of herpes simplex)
– Manifest or clinical infection
 contamination
• The presence of an infectious agent on a body
surface, on or in clothes, beddings, toys,
surgical instruments or dressings, or other
articles or substances including water and
food
 Infestation
• It is the lodgment, development and
reproduction of arthropods on the surface of
the body or in the clothing, e.g. lice, itch mite.
This term could be also used to describe the
invasion of the gut by parasitic worms, e.g.
ascariasis.
 Contagious disease
• A contagious disease is the one that is
transmitted through contact. Examples include
scabies, trachoma, STD and leprosy.
 Host
• A person or an animal that affords subsistence
or lodgement to an infectious agent under
natural conditions. Types include: an obligate
host, definitive (primary) host, intermediate
host and a transport host.
 Vector of infection
• An insect or any living carrier that transports
an infectious agent from an infected individual
or its wastes to a susceptible individual or its
food or immediate surroundings. Both
biological and mechanical transmissions are
encountered.
 Reservoir
• Any person, animal, arthropod, plant, soil, or
substance, or a combination of these, in which
an infectious agent normally lives and
multiplies, on which it depends primarily for
survival, and where it reproduces itself in such
a manner that it can be transmitted to a
susceptible host. It is the natural habitat of the
infectious agent.
Incidence and prevalence of infectious
diseases
• Incidence of an infectious disease: number of new cases in a
given time period expressed as percent infected per year
(cumulative incidence) or number per person time of
observation (incidence density).

• Prevalence of an infectious disease: number of cases at a

given time expressed as a percent at a given time. Prevalence
is a product of incidence x duration of disease, and is of little
interest if an infectious disease is of short duration (i.e.
measles), but may be of interest if an infectious disease is of
long duration (i.e. chronic hepatitis B).
 Epidemic
• “The unusual occurrence in a community of
disease, specific health related behavior, or
other health related events clearly in excess of
expected occurrence”
• (epi= upon; demos= people)
• Epidemics can occur upon endemic states too.
 Endemic
• It refers to the constant presence of a disease
or infectious agent within a given geographic
area or population group. It is the usual or
expected frequency of disease within a
population.
• (En = in; demos = people)
 Hyperendemic and holoendemic
• The term “hyperendemic” expresses that the disease
is constantly present at high incidence and/or
prevalence rate and affects all age groups equally.

• The term “holoendemic” expresses a high level of

infection beginning early in life and affecting most of
the child population, leading to a state of equilibrium
such that the adult population shows evidence of the
disease much less commonly than do the children
(e.g. malaria)
Pandemic and Exotic
• An epidemic usually affecting a large proportion of
the population, occuring over a wide geographic area
such as a section of a nation, the entire nation, a
continent or the world, e.g. Influenza pandemics.

• Exotic diseases are those which are imported into a

country in which they do not otherwise occur, as for
example, rabies in the UK.
 Sporadic
• The word sporadic means “scattered about”. The
cases occur irregularly, haphazardly from time to
time, and generally infrequently. The cases are few
and separated widely in time and place that they
show no or little connection with each other, nor a
recognizable common source of infection e.g. polio,
meningococcal meningitis, tetanus….
• However, a sporadic disease could be the starting
point of an epidemic when the conditions are
favorable for its spread.
Attack rates and primary/secondary
cases
• Attack rate: proportion of non-immune exposed
individuals who become clinically ill.

• Primary (index)/secondary cases: The person who

comes into and infects a population is the primary
case. Those who subsequently contract the infection
are secondary cases. Further spread is described as
"waves" or "generations".
 Zoonosis, epizootic and enzootic
• Zoonosis is an infection that is transmissible under
natural conditions from vertebrate animals to man,
e.g. rabies, plague, bovine tuberculosis…..
• An epizotic is an outbreak (epidemic) of disease in an
animal population, e.g. rift valley fever.
• An Enzotic is an endemic occurring in animals, e.g.
bovine TB.
 Nosocomial infections
• Nosocomial (hospital acquired) infection is an
infection originating in a patient while in a
hospital or another health care facility. It has
to be a new disorder unrelated to the patient’s
primary condition. Examples include infection
of surgical wounds, hepatitis B and urinary
tract infetions.
 Opportunistic infection
• This is infection by organisms that take the
opportunity provided by a defect in host
defense (e.g. immunity) to infect the host and
thus cause disease. For example, opportunistic
infections are very common in AIDS.
Organisms include Herpes simplex,
cytomegalovirus,
• M. tuberculosis….
 Eradication and Elimination
• Termination of all transmission of infection by the
extermination of the infectious agent through surveillance
and containment. Eradication is an absolute process, an “all or
none” phenomenon, restricted to termination of infection
from the whole world.

• The term elimination is sometimes used to describe

eradication of a disease from a large geographic region.
Disease which are amenable to elimination in the meantime
are polio, measles and diphtheria.
 Reproductive rate of infection:
• Reproductive rate of infection: potential for an
infectious disease to spread. Influential factors
include the probability of transmission between an
infected and a susceptible individual; frequency of
population contact; duration of infection; virulence
of the organism and population immune proportion .
Dynamics of disease Transmission
(Chain of Infection)

I II III

Source or Reservoir Modes of transmission Susceptible host

(I): Source or Reservoir
• The starting point for the occurrence of a communicable
disease is the existence of a reservoir or source of infection.

• The source of infection is defined as “the person, animal,

object or substance from which an infectious agent passes or
is disseminated to the host (immediate source). The reservoir
is “any person, animal, arthropod, plant, soil, or substance, or
a combination of these, in which an infectious agent normally
lives and multiplies, on which it depends primarily for survival,
and where it reproduces itself in such a manner that it can be
transmitted to a susceptible host. It is the natural habitat of
the infectious agent.”
Types of reservoirs

Reservoir

Human Animal Non-living

reservoir reservoir reservoir
 Human reservoir

Human reservoir

:Type
• Incubatory
cases
• Primary case
• Index case
• Convalescent carriers
• healthy
• Secondary cases

:According to spectrum of disease Duration: :Portal of exit

• Clinical cases • Tempora • Urinary
(mild/severe-typical/atypical) ry • Intestinal
• Sub-clinical cases • Chronic • Respiratory
• Latent infection cases • others
 Cases
• A case is defined as “a person in the
population or study group identified as having
the particular disease, health disorder, or
condition under investigation”
 Carriers
• It occurs either due to inadequate treatment or immune response, the
disease agent is not completely eliminated, leading to a carrier state.

• It is “an infected person or animal that harbors a specific infectious

agent in the absence of discernible (visible) clinical disease and serves
as a potential source of infection to others.
• Three elements have to occur to form a carrier state:
1. The presence in the body of the disease agent.
2. The absence of recognizable symptoms and signs of disease.
3. The shedding of disease agent in the discharge or excretions.
 Animal reservoirs
• Zoonosis is an infection that is transmissible
under natural conditions from vertebrate
animals to man, e.g. rabies, plague, bovine
tuberculosis…..
• There are over a 100 zoonotic diseases that
can be conveyed from animal to man.
 Reservoir in non-living things
• Soil and inanimate matter can also act as
reservoir of infection.

• For example, soil may harbor agents that

causes tetanus, anthrax and
coccidiodomycosis.
 (II): Modes of transmission
Mode of transmission

Direct Indirect
transmission transmission

Direct Vehicle-borne
contact :Vector-borne •
Droplet infection • Mechanical propagative
• biological
.Cyclo-prop
Contact with soil
Air-borne .Cyclo-develop

Inoculation into skin or mucosa

Fomite-born
Trans-placental (vertical) Unclean hands
and fingers
(III): Susceptible host
• An infectious agent seeks a susceptible host aiming
“successful parasitism”.

• Four stages are required for successful parasitism:

1. Portal of entry
2. Site of election inside the body
3. Portal of exit
4. Survival in external environment
 Virulence and Case Fatality Rate
• Virulence: is the degree of pathogenicity; the disease evoking
power of a micro-organism in a given host. Numerically
expressed as the ratio of the number of cases of overt
infection to the total number infected, as determined by
immunoassay. When death is the only criterion of severity,
this is the case fatality rate.

• Case fatality rate for infectious diseases: is the proportion of

infected individuals who die of the infection. This is a function
of the severity of the infection and is heavily influenced by
how many mild cases are not diagnosed.
 Serial interval and Infectious period
• Serial interval: (the gap in time between the onset of
the primary and the secondary cases) the interval
between receipt of infection and maximal infectivity
of the host (also called generation time).

• Infectious (communicable) period: length of time a

person can transmit disease (sheds the infectious
agent).
 Incubation and Latent periods
• Incubation period: time from exposure to
development of disease. In other words, the time
interval between invasion by an infectious agent and
the appearance of the first sign or symptom of the
disease in question.

• Latent period: the period between exposure and the

onset of infectiousness (this may be shorter or longer
than the incubation period).
Transmission Probability Ratio (TPR)

TPR is a measure of risk transmission from

infected to susceptible individuals during a contact.

TPR of differing types of contacts, infectious

agents, infection routes and strains can be calculated.

There are 4 types of transmission probabilities.

 TPR (cont.)
Transmission probabilities:
• p00: tp from unvaccinated infective to unvaccinated
susceptible
• p01: tp from vaccinated infective to unvaccinated
susceptible
• p10: tp from unvaccinated infective to vaccinated
susceptible
• p11: tp from vaccinated infective to vaccinated
susceptible
 TPR (cont.)
• To estimate the effect of a vaccine in reducing
susceptibility, compare the ratio of p10 to p00.
• To estimate the effect of a vaccine in reducing
infectiousness, compare the ratio of p01 to p00.
• To estimate the combined effect of a vaccine,
compare the ratio of p11 to p00.
THANK YOU
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