Modes Of Transmission Of Bacterial Infections
There are five modes of transmission in bacterial infection. They are:
- contact
- airborne
- droplet
- vectors
- vehicular
A number of diseases are transmitted by each one.
Contact transmission can involve a number of different types and styles of surfaces. Classic examples include Streptococcal impetigo which is direct skin to skin contact, gonorrhea which involves contact between just mucous membranes, Salmonella is through fecal to oral contact and syphilis which is often through transfusion.
Airborne transmission is the mode for generating tuberculosis, for Q fever and for legionella.
Droplet infection is common for pertussis, meningococcus and Haemophilus influenzae.
If you think of vectors, this can involve ticks, flies and lice which feed on blood. Ticks are vectors of Lyme disease. A fly infects people with Shigella, whilst lice carry epidemic typhus and fleas were well-known carriers of plague.
The final mode of transmission is vehicular and this might be by food contamination as in the case of Campylobacter or if trachoma produced by ingestion of fomites.
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