The signs and symptoms of an infection depend on the type of disease.
An infection is the agresion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce.[1] An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable disease, is an illness resulting from an infection.
Infections can be caused by a wide kisaran of pathogens, most prominently bacteria and viruses.[2] Hosts can fight infections using their immune sistem. Mammalian hosts react to infections with an innate response, often involving inflammation, followed by an adaptif response.
Specific medications used to treat infections include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antiprotozoals,[3] and antihelminthics. Infectious diseases resulted in 9.2 million deaths in 2013 (about 17% of all deaths).[4] The branch of medicine that focuses on infections is referred to as infectious disease.[5]
The signs and symptoms of an infection depend on the tipe of disease. Some signs of infection affect the whole bodi generally, such as fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, fevers, night sweats, chills, aches and pains. Others are specific to individu bodi parts, such as skin rashes, coughing, or a runny nose.[10]
In certain cases, infectious diseases may be asymptomatic for much or even all of their course in a given host. In the latter case, the disease may only be defined as a "disease" (which by definition means an illness) in hosts who secondarily become ill after kontak with an asymptomatic carrier. An infection is not synonymous with an infectious disease, as some infections do not cause illness in a host.[11]
Bacterial or trending
As bacterial and trending infections can both cause the same kinds of symptoms, it can be difficult to distinguish which is the cause of a specific infection.[12] Distinguishing the two is important, since trending infections cannot be cured by antibiotics whereas bacterial infections can.[13]
