The Impact of Infectious Diseases

Diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and other parasites are major causes of death, disability, and social and economic disruption for millions of people.^1-3 Despite the existence of safe and effective interventions, many people lack access to needed prevention methods and treatment. The lost productivity, missed educational opportunities and high health care costs caused by infectious diseases directly impact families and communities.

Infections are prevalent in developing countries, where co-infection is common. The adverse impact of infectious diseases is most severe among the poorest people, who have the fewest resources to draw from and limited or no access to integrated health care, prevention tools and medications.

Emerging, re-emerging, and novel infections increase awareness of our global vulnerability, highlight the borderless impact of disease and underscore the need for strong health care systems.⁴

• Approximately 15 million people die each year due to infectious diseases – nearly all live in developing countries.¹
  
  
  • Children are particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases. Pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria are leading causes of death among children under age 5; cerebral malaria can cause permanent mental impairment.^{3, 4, 6}
    
  • Infectious diseases are also destructive to the health of adults, causing disability, a diminished quality of life, decreased productivity or death.
  
• Co-infection. People infected with one infectious disease become more susceptible to other diseases. For example, people living with HIV/AIDS are more likely to become ill from tuberculosis or malaria. Because some neglected diseases share common risk factors, people are often infected with multiple neglected diseases at the same time.^7-9
  
• Interventions. Illness and death from infectious diseases are particularly tragic because they are largely preventable and treatable with available interventions.
  
• Progress. Recent advances against infectious diseases include:
  
  
  • Efforts to achieve the sixth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which focuses on stopping and reversing the spread of infectious diseases by 2015.¹⁰
    
  • Regional accomplishments, such as:
    
    
    • A 92 percent reduction in deaths resulting from measles in Africa and a 93 percent reduction in the Eastern Mediterranean between 2000 and 2008.¹¹
    • In Southeast Asia, an increase in successfully treated tuberculosis cases from 33 percent to 88 percent between 1995 and 2007.¹²
    • The near eradication of polio and guinea worm disease, and lower prevalence of several other tropical diseases over the past few decades.^{9, 13}
    
  • A renewed interest in the research and development of new diagnostics, vaccines and drug treatments.^{14, 17}
  
  
• Increased funding could help eradicate, eliminate and control diseases, preventing millions of deaths and improving the lives of many millions more.¹⁸