c03 p14 Modes of Disease Transmission

Modes of disease transmission
Disease……
• A condition in which body health is impaired, a
departure from a state of health, an alteration of
human body interrupting the performance of vital
functions.
• Communicable / Non-communicable
Communicable disease
• An illness due to a specific infectious agent or
its toxic products and is capable of being
directly or indirectly transmitted from man
to man , animal to animal , or from
environment to man or animal.
• e.g.,: AIDS ,Hepatitis B

Non-communicable disease
• An impairment of bodily structure and / or
function that necessitates a modification of the
person’s normal life.
• Do not get transmitted from one to the

other.
• e.g.,: hypertension , road traffic accidents

Modes of transmission of a
communicable disease
• The road taken by the

causative agent to reach
the susceptible host from
its reservoir or source.
Chain of Infection
Reservoir Modes of Susceptible

Or source transmission host
• Source…..
A person , animal , object or substance
from which an infectious agent passes or is
disseminated to host.
• Reservoir….
The natural habitat in which the organism
metabolizes and replicates.
• Mode depends upon
1. Infectious agent
2. Portal of entry
3. Local ecological conditions
• Rule …
one disease ……… one route
e.g., filariasis by culex mosquito
• Break the rules

e.g., AIDS , salmonellosis
Classification
• Direct transmission • Indirect transmission
1. Direct contact 1. Vehicle- borne
2. Droplet infection 2. Vector-borne
3. Contact with soil 3. Air-borne
4. Inoculation into skin or 4. Fomite - borne
mucosa 5. Unclean hands and fingers
5. Trans placental
transmission
Direct transmission
• Direct contact
skin to skin
mucosa to mucosa
mucosa to skin
• Direct and essentially
immediate transfer
• No intermediate agency
• Reduces the period for which the
organism will have to survive
outside the human host
• Ensures larger dose of infection.
• E.g., STD, AIDS, leprosy
leptospirosis ,skin &eye infections.
• Droplet infection
• Direct projection of spray of
droplets of saliva and
nasopharyngeal secretions.
• Direct impingement upon
conjunctiva , skin or inhalation
onto the oro - respiratory
mucosa.
• Limited to a distance of
30-60 cm between source
and host.
• Potentiality increases with
1. Close proximity
2. Over crowding
3. Lack of ventilation
• E.g., respiratory
infections , eruptive
fevers like measles ,
diphtheria , tuberculosis ,
meningococcal meningitis,
Covid 19
• Contact with soil
direct exposure to
contaminated soil or soil
with saprophytic
organisms.
e.g., hookworm larvae ,

tetanus , mycosis.
• Inoculation into skin or mucosa
Hepatitis B through contaminated Rabies virus

needles and syringes by dog-bite
• Trans placental transmission
From the mother to the child
e.g., TORCH agents , varicella ,
Syphilis ,hepatitis B, Coxsackie B
AIDS
Non-living agents like thalidomide,

diethylstilbestrol cause embryonic
malformations.
Indirect transmission
• Requires an intermediate agent or an in-animate
object.
5F ‘s :Food , Flies , Fingers , Fomites ,Fluid
Additional requirement : capability to survive
outside the host in the external environment and
retain its basic properties of pathogenesis & virulence
till it finds a new host.
Depends upon
1. Characteristics of the agent
2. Inanimate object
3. Influence of environmental factors
• Vehicle-borne
Intermediate agent: Water , Food , Ice , Blood , Serum,
Plasma or other biological products such as tissues
& organs.
Organisms may multiply
(Staph. aureus in food ) or
develop or just get passively
transmitted (Hepatitis A virus
in water)
• Through Water And Food: infections of alimentary
tract
• Through Blood :Hepatitis B , malaria , syphilis ,

brucellosis ,trypanosomiasis , infectious mononucleosis ,
cytomegalovirus infection
• Organ transplantation: CMV infection through kidney

transplants
Epidemiological features:
• Heavy dose of contamination out break of disease.
• Initial confinement to the exposed to contaminated
vehicle.
• Primary case may be obscured by the time secondary
cases appear.
• Not always possible to isolate the infectious agent from
incriminated vehicle.
• Epidemic subsides on control or withdrawal of vehicle.
• Great distances may be travelled by the infectious agents.
• Common source is often traceable.
• Vector-borne
Vector….an arthropod or any living carrier that
transports an infectious agent to a susceptible
individual.
cyclops bat mice

Epidemiological classification:
BY VECTOR :-
a) Invertebrate type :
1)Diptera – flies & mosquitoes
2)Siphonaptera – fleas
3)Orthoptera – cockroaches
4)Anoplura –sucking lice
5)Hemiptera –bugs
6)Acarina – ticks &mites
7)Copepoda – cyclops
b) Vertebrate type :
mice , rodents , bats
• BY TRANSMISSION CHAIN :-
a) man & a non-vertebrate host
1) man – arthropod – man (malaria)
2) man – snail –man (schistomiasis)
b) man , another vertebrate host &
a non-vertebrate host
1) mammal – arthropod – man (plague)
2) bird – arthropod – man (encephalitis)
c) man & 2 intermediate hosts
1) man – cyclops-fish-man (fish tapeworm)
2) man – snail – crab – man (paragonimiasis)
• BY METHODS IN WHICH VECTORS
TRANSMIT AGENT :-
a) biting
b) regurgitation
c) scratching-in of faeces
d) contamination of host with body fluids of vectors.
• BY METHODS IN WHICH VECTORS ARE
INVOLVED IN TRANSMISSION &
PROPAGATION OF PARASITES :-
a) mechanical
b) biological
• Mechanical transmission
Soiling Of Feet Or Proboscis Or By Passage Of
Organism Through Its GIT And Passively Excreted
e.g., houseflies typhoid
• Biological transmission
Replication or development or both may take
place
a) Propagative :
e.g., plague bacilli in rat fleas
b) Cyclo-propagative :
e.g., malaria parasites in mosquito
c) Cyclo-developmental :
e.g., microfilaria in mosquito
Influential factors :
• Host feeding preferences
• Infectivity
• Susceptibility
• Survival rate of vectors
• Domesticity
• Suitable environmental factors.
• Air-borne
1) droplet nuclei
tiny particles that represent the dried residue of
droplets.
e.g., tuberculosis , influenza ,
chickenpox , measles , Q fever
2)dust
settling down of larger droplets
may become air-borne
Nosocomial infection
e.g., pneumonia tuberculosis ,
psittacosis
• Fomite-borne
Fomite….
inanimate objects or substances other than water or food
contaminated by the infectious discharges from a patient
and capable of harboring &transferring the infectious
agent to a healthy person.
e.g., diphtheria , typhoid , bacillary dysentery
• Unclean hands and fingers
• Imply lack of personal hygiene
• 1984 dysentery epidemic in India
e.g., intestinal parasites , typhoid , dysentery.

c03 p14 Modes of Disease Transmission

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

c03 p14 Modes of Disease Transmission

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

c03 p14 Modes of Disease Transmission

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Modes of disease transmission

• e.g.,: AIDS ,Hepatitis B

• Do not get transmitted from one to the

• e.g.,: hypertension , road traffic accidents

• The road taken by the

Reservoir Modes of Susceptible

• Break the rules

e.g., hookworm larvae ,

Hepatitis B through contaminated Rabies virus

Non-living agents like thalidomide,

• Through Blood :Hepatitis B , malaria , syphilis ,

• Organ transplantation: CMV infection through kidney

cyclops bat mice

You might also like