dc.description.abstract | Infectious diseases, for example, measles, scarlet fever, malaria, tuberculosis, and cholera have claimed many lives. These infections are caused by pathogenic viruses, bacteria, or fungi that invade the body's tissues and multiply. According to the Online Medical Dictionary (2000), the multiplication may be clinically barely visible or result in local cellular injury because of competitive metabolism, toxins, intracellular replication, or antigen-antibody response. An infection may remain localized, sub-clinical, and temporary if the body's defensive mechanisms are effective or it could persist, spread, and become an acute, sub-acute, or chronic clinical
infection or disease state. | en_US |