INFECTION AND INFECTIOUS
PROCESS
Instructor: Mr. Hassan Kafi Abdikadir
MSc Health Care Organization management
Nicosia –Cyprus
INFECTION AND INFECTIOUS
PROCESS
1. Infection. Classification of
infections
2. Sources of infection in Man
3. Methods of transmission of
infection
4. Factors predisposing to
microbial pathogenicity
5. Types of infectious
diseases
Microcolonies
Infection is the
lodgement and
multiplication of
organism in the
tissue of host
Biofilms of the different
types of bacteria
Classification of infections
1. Primary infection: Initial infection with
organism in host.
2. Reinfection: Subsequent infection by
same organism in a host (after recovery).
3. Superinfection: Infection by same
organism in a host before recovery.
4. Secondary infection: When in a host
whose resistance is lowered by
preexisting infectious disease, a new
organism may set up in infection.
Classification of infections
5. Focal infection: It is a condition where due
to infection at localized sites like appendix
and tonsil, general effects are produced.
6. Cross infection: When a patient suffering
from a disease and new infection it set up
from another host or external source.
7. Nosocomial infection: Cross infection
occurring in hospital.
8. Subclinical infection: It is one where
clinical affects are not apparent.
Causative agents of infections
• Saprophytes: They are free living organisms
which fail to multiply on living tissue and so
are not important in infectious disease.
• Parasites: They are organisms that can
establish themselves and multiply in hosts.
They may be pathogens or commensal.
Pathogens are those which are capable of
producing disease in a host. On the contrary
commensal microbes can live in a host
without causing any disease.
Sources of infection in Man
Man: Man is himself a common source of
infection from a patient or carrier.
Healthy carrier is a person harboring
pathogenic organism without causing
any disease to him.
A convalescent carrier is one who has
recovered from disease but continues
to harbor the pathogen in his body.
Sources of infection in Man
Animals: Infectious diseases transmitted
from animals to man are called zoonosis.
Zoonosis may be bacterial, (e.g. Plague
from rat), viral, (e.g. Rabies from dog),
protozoal, (e.g. Leishmaniasis from dogs),
helminthic, (e.g. Hydatid cyst from dogs)
and fungal (zoophilic dermatophytes from
cats and dogs).
Sources of infection in Man
Insects: The diseases caused by insects
are called arthropod borne disease.
Insects like mosquitoes, fleas, lice that
transmit infection are called vector.
Transmission may be mechanical
(transmission of Dysentery or typhoid
bacilli by housefly) and these are
called mechanical vector. They are
called biological vector if pathogen
multiplies in the body of vector, e.g.
Anopheles mosquito in Malaria.
Sources of infection in Man
Some vectors may acts as reservoir
host, (e.g. ticks in Relapsing fever).
Soil: Spores of tetanus bacilli, Gas-
gangrene infection remain viable in
soil for a long time.
Clostridium tetani
Sources of infection in Man
Water: Vibrio cholerae,
infective hepatitis virus
(Hepatitis A and
Hepatitis E) may be
found water.
Food: Contaminated food
may be source of
infection. Presence of
pathogens in food may
be due to external
contamination, (e.g.
food poisoning by
Staphylococcus).
Methods of transmission of
infection
• Contact (sexual
intercourse):
syphilis, gonorrhea.
• Inhalation:
influenza,
tuberculosis,
smallpox, measles,
mumps, etc.
Methods of transmission of
infection
• Ingestion: cholera
(water), food poisoning
(food) and dysentery
(hand borne).
• Inoculation: tetanus
(infection), rabies (dog),
Human hand
arbovirus (insect) and contaminated with
serum hepatitis, i.e. colonies of
Hepatitis B (infection). bacteria (blue/pink
patches)
Methods of transmission of
infection
• Congenital:
syphilis,
Eight week old fetus
attached to its placenta by
the umbilical cord
Methods of transmission of
infection
• Insects: they act as
mechanical vector
(dysentery and typhoid
by housefly) or
biological vector
(malaria) of infectious
disease
• Jatrogenic and
laboratory infections:
infection may be
transmitted during
procedures
Characters of pathogens
• Bacteria should be able to enter the
body.
• Organism should be able to multiply in
the tissue.
• They should be able to damage the
tissue.
• They must be capable to resist the host
defense.
Pathogenecity is referred to the ability of
microbial species to produce disease.
Virulence is referred to the ability of microbial
strains to produce disease.
Factors of Virulence
• Adhesion: The initial event in the
pathogenesis of many infections is the
attachment of the bacteria to body surfaces.
This attachment is specific reaction between
surface receptors and adhesive structures on
the surface of bacteria (adhesins).
Adherence of bacteria
Factors of Virulence
• Invasiveness is the ability of
organism to spread in a host tissue
after establishing infection. Less
invasive organisms cause localized
lesion. Highly invasive organisms
cause generalized infection
(septicemia).
• Toxigenicity. Bacteria produce two
types of toxins – exotoxins &
endotoxins
Infecting dose
• The minimum infection dose (MID) or
minimum lethal dose (MLD) is the
minimum number of organism required to
produce clinical evidence of infection or
dearth of susceptible animal.
• Route of infection
• Vibrio cholerae is effective orally. No effect
when it is introduced subcutaneously.
• Streptococci can initiate infection whatever
be the mode of entry.
Types of infectious diseases
• Infectious diseases may be localized or
generalized. Localized infections may be
superficial or deep-seated.
• Circulation of bacteria in the blood is
known as bacteremia (viruses – virusemia).
Types of infectious diseases
• Septicemia is the condition where
bacteria circulate and multiply in the
blood, form toxic products and cause
swinging type of fever.
• Pyemia is a condition where pyogenic
bacteria produce septicemia with
multiple abscesses in the internal organs
such as the spleen, liver and kidney.
Types of infectious diseases
• Depending on the spread of infectious
disease in the community they may be
classified into different types.
• Endemic diseases are ones that are
constantly present in a particular area.
Typhoid fever is endemic in most parts of
India. An epidemic disease is one that
spreads rapidly, involving many persons in
an area at the same time. Influenza
causes annual winter epidemics in the
cold countries.
Types of infectious diseases
• A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads through
many areas of the world involving very large
numbers of persons within a short period
(Influenza, cholera).
• Epidemics vary in the rapidity of spread.
Waterborne disease such as cholera and
hepatitis may cause explosive outbreaks, while
disease, which spreads by person-to-person
contact evolve more slowly.
Stages of infectious disease
• Incubation period – no symptoms.
• Prodromal period – mild and
generalized symptoms (fever,
weakness, headache).
• Invasive stage – symptoms specific to
the disease.
• Decline stage – symptoms subside.
• Convalescence – no symptoms, health
returns to normal.
