INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Infectious diseases are caused by pathogens (“germs”) including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites, and are ranked as the second leading cause of death worldwide by the World Health Organization. These infections can lead to temporary discomfort, serious tissue damage or even result in death.

The severity of an infection is in part dependent on the strength of a person’s immune system, since most people mount an immune response to the infection which kills or inactivates the pathogen. In this regard, the character of the immune response helps determine the consequences of a particular infection. And for some infections, an excessive immune response is actually bad, as it can cause symptoms such as high fever and inflammation, which have the potential to be more devastating than direct damage caused by a pathogen.

An additional important element of immune responses to pathogens is that the diagnosis of infectious disease with traditional culture methods is often quite slow, whereas new diagnostic methods that rely on interpreting the immune response can be much quicker, facilitating earlier appropriate treatment.