Definition

1
Definition

• Infectious diseases result in a reaction of the
  host to the invading organism, producing
  abnormalities in the host and usually killing the
  invading pathogen.

2
Subcategories

• Food-borne diseases
• botulism, salmonellosis, E. coli O157H7
• STD and HIV/AIDS
• Vector-borne diseases
• malaria, plague, rabies, yellow fever, Lyme
  disease, rabies, dengue
• Diseases transmitted by animals and arthropods
• Water-borne diseases
• cholera, typhoid, cryptosporidiosis
• Respiratory diseases
• Diseases acquired in health care settings
• New and reemerging diseases
• plague, yellow fever, dengue, diphtheria,
  influenza, Legionnaires disease
• Drug-resistant diseases
• pneumonia, respiratory infections, TB, typhoid,
  E. coli infections, vancomycin-resistant
  enterococcal infections

3
Incidence Rates

• It was difficult to find incidence rates that
  encompassed either this entire infectious disease
  classification or its subcategories so I
  described some specific diseases within the
  various subcategories.
• Food-borne diseases are common an estimated 6-33
  million cases occur each year in the United
  States.
• Globally, there are an estimated 50 to 100
  million cases of dengue fever (DF) and several
  hundred thousand cases of dengue hemorrhagic
  fever (DHF) each year.
• The CDC is noticing a rapid emergence of Lyme
  disease cases in the United States a 25-fold
  annual increase in reported since 1982. There
  were more than 12,500 cases reported in 48 states
  during 1997 and over 103,000 cases reported since
  1982.

4
Diffusion Rates

• There exists a fragile equilibrium between humans
  and infectious microorganisms.
• Infectious diseases are still broadly endemic and
  maintain a large reservoir of agents that have
  the potential for rapid and widespread
  dissemination.

5
Regional Area Specificity

• Varies from disease to disease and outbreak to
  outbreak.
• They can be endemics, epidemics or pandemics.

6
Life Cycle Reparability

• Can be both long-term and short-term.
• Some infectious diseases it is fairly easy to
  recover from, with the proper medical attention
  and treatment, while others have such a high
  fatality rate or have no cure so death is pretty
  much the only outcome of being infected.

7
Social Meanings

• In some cultures, being infected by a particular
  infectious disease could lead to others looking
  down upon the infected individual. The disease
  is thought of a way that this person is being
  punished for their actions and wrong doings.
• Victim blaming also occurs. However, other
  cultures are more sympathetic to the victims
  realizing that, in many circumstances, being
  inflicted with the disease is not their fault.

8
Channel of Infection

• The infectious contagion is harbored in its
  host, water, soil, its vector, food and etc.
  waiting for another susceptible person it can
  jump into.
• Since it is infectious it is transferred from one
  infected person through a variety of means. Some
  are direct (such as someone sneezing or coughing
  on a non-infected individual) and others are
  indirect (such as vector-borne diseases).

9
Unique Selling Proposition Positioning Statement

• Infectious diseases are the leading cause of
  death worldwide, and deaths from infectious
  diseases in the United States have been
  increasing. Infectious diseases ranked third
  among the leading causes of death in 1992 in the
  United States.
• The world has rapidly become much more vulnerable
  to the eruption and, most critically, to the
  widespread and even global spread of both new and
  old infectious diseases. The dramatic increases
  in worldwide movement of people, goods and ideas
  is the driving force behind the globalization of
  disease. For not only do people travel
  increasingly, but they travel much more rapidly,
  and go to more places than ever before.

10
Segmentation

• Everyone is at risk. Infectious diseases are a
  continuing threat to all persons, regardless of
  age, sex, lifestyle, ethnic background, and
  socioeconomic status.
• Many times, an individual has little control over
  his (or her) probability of becoming afflicted.

11
Barriers

• In many cases, people and regions have no prior
  warning that an infectious disease outbreak will
  occur. However, there are a variety of
  psychological, social, cultural and economic
  barriers that if removed could possibly decrease
  the regions possibility of being struck.
• Many developing countries are too poor to invest
  in various medical and other technologies.
• Several factors contribute to the emergence and
  re-emergence of infectious diseases. Most can be
  linked with the increasing number of people
  living and moving in the world.
• Although many serious infectious diseases are
  largely or completely preventable, our current
  neglect to public health, hamper our ability to
  control them effectively.
• The overuse of effective antibiotics.

12
Product Line Width

• In some outbreaks, the target behaviors cannot be
  identified.
• Whether an emerging microorganism develops into a
  public health threat depends on factors related
  to the microorganism and its environment, or the
  infected human and his/her environment.
• Such factors include ease of transmission between
  animals and people and among people, potential
  for spread, severity of illness, availability of
  effective tools to prevent and control the
  outbreak, and ability to treat the disease.

13
Product Line Depth

• The target behaviors vary among the different
  infectious diseases. In looking at the overall
  picture, every part of the general public should
  be addressed in one form or another.
• Special target groups doctors veterinarians and
  other healthcare providers who prescribe
  medicine, parents and other family members, food
  handlers and preparers, and political and
  economic leaders who can change their national
  and the international climate related issues such
  as poverty and environmental/land use
  alterations.

14
Product Line Diversity

• Inform health care providers, parents and
  international health related groups that
  immunization through mass media campaigns, public
  health department immunization campaigns,
  informing the health care providers in office
  visit.
• Through media advocacy techniques use mass
  communication combined with interpersonal to
  reach various leaders and other powerful figures.
• Educate doctors, veterinarians and other health
  care providers through classes and office visits.
• Teaching food preparers, through mass
  communication, classes and one-on-one discussions.

15
Newsworthiness

• There is a fear factor surrounding infectious
  disease because of an individual many times has
  little control over his fate with regards to
  infectious diseases, they tend to strike without
  warning. This allows for sensationalism for the
  media. In many cases, infectious diseases and
  outbreaks make headlines.
• As more and more new, reemerging and drug
  resistant infectious diseases plague the world,
  the sense of heightened uncertainty and alarm is
  likely increase.

16
Channels of Change

• Mass media and media advocacy campaigns combined
  with interpersonal communication.