If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
INFECTIONS BY THE NUMBERS
Outbreaks of infectious diseases are rising around the world, although deaths are dropping. Here we show several snapshots that capture these trends. Recently in the U.S., the number of people getting sick from certain ailments has risen. Worldwide, the number of people killed from many types of infections has decreased over the long term, although the trend varies at different economic levels. Overall, disease outbreaks, a measure that includes both sickness and death, have become more frequent, with more varied causes.
GLOSSARYInfectious Disease: Illness caused by microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi, that can spread from one person to another or from an animal to a person.
Endemic: Describes the baseline level of a disease usually present in a community.
Epidemic or Outbreak: An increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above normal levels in a region. An outbreak sometimes refers to an increase in a smaller geographical area.
Pandemic: An epidemic that has spread across several countries or continents and usually affects a large number of people.
Zoonosis: A type of infectious disease that originates in vertebrate animals and moves to people. It can be spread by direct contact or carried from animals to humans by a vector such as a biting insect.
Measures of DiseaseMortality: The number of deaths caused by a disease in a population at a particular time.
Incidence: The number of new cases of a disease in a population at a particular time.
Credit: Jen Christiansen; Sources: Amanda Hobbs (research); “Summary of Notifiable Infectious Diseases and Conditions—United States” reports for 2014 and 2015, in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; 2016 Annual Tables of Infectious Disease Data, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017 www.cdc.gov/nndss/infectious-tables.html (Legionnaires’, mumps, pertussis and hepatitis C data); Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2016. CDC, September 2017 (STD data); Global Health Estimates 2015: Deaths by Cause, Age, Sex, by Country and by Region, 2000–2015. World Health Organization, 2016 (mortality data); “Global rise in human infectious disease outbreaks,” by Katherine F. Smith et al., in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Vol. 11, No. 101; December 6, 2014 (outbreak data)
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
Thank you,
Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American
