What does susceptibility mean in epidemiology?

What does susceptibility mean in epidemiology?

Susceptibility: The state of being susceptible (easily affected / infected). A susceptible person does not possess sufficient resistance against a particular pathogen to prevent contracting that infection or disease when exposed to the pathogen.

What makes an individual more susceptible to infection?

Some risk factors arise from outside the individual – for example, poor personal hygiene, or poor control of reservoirs of infection in the environment. Factors such as these increase the exposure of susceptible hosts to infectious agents, which makes the disease more likely to develop.

What kind of diseases can be transmitted from person to person?

Diseases that are transmitted from person to person without intermediaries include the sexually transmitted diseases, measles, mumps, streptococcal infection, and many respiratory pathogens.

Who are the classic asymptomatic carriers of a disease?

Typically thinking themselves cured of the disease, these individuals are known as convalescent carriers. Viral diseases such as hepatitis and poliomyelitis are frequently transmitted in this manner. Considered to be the classic asymptomatic carriers, “healthy carriers” never exhibit signs or symptoms of the disease,…

Which is the best definition of a communicable disease?

Communicable disease—An illness due to a specific infectious agent or its toxic products that arises 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.

When does an infection become a carrier state?

The carrier state may exist in an individual with an infection that is inapparent throughout its course (commonly known as healthy or asymptomatic carrier), or during the incubation period, convalescence and postconvalescence of an individual with a clinically recognizable disease (commonly known as an incubatory or convalescent carrier).