Misconceptions about infectious diseases

Misconceptions about infectious diseases

Recently, there has been a prodigious number of media coverage on worldwide infections issues such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Ebola virus, and other infectious diseases. However, much of this knowledge about these diseases are still misunderstood in the general public. Even medical school students have misconception about epidemiology and mode of transmission of these diseases. 

Most people are prejudiced against homosexual men because people believe they have high risk of spreading of AIDS to others. However, HIV is not transmitted by air, water, sweat, tears, closed-mouth kissing, insects, or sharing foods and drinks. In fact, most people transmit HIV through sexual intercourse and sharing of bodily fluids, such as semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, or through blood. There are still many people who believe HIV and AIDS as a disease with high mortality rate while in fact, there have been recent breakthroughs in pharmacology, such as Zidovudine, and Lamivudine that boost immunity by preventing apoptosis of immune cells and help to prolong the lifespan of patients who are HIV-positive. 

In 2014 Ebola outbreak, people were horrified about symptoms and prognosis of Ebola virus infection. However, people did not have enough information to learn and process information about the disease since the media only emphasized high mortality rates in Africa and North America. People believed that Ebola virus was an airborne infection that was spread in a plane that carried infected passengers from West Africa to other parts of the world. Contrary to popular belief, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the mode of transmission for Ebola virus is similar to HIV/AIDS, which is contracted through direct contact with infected blood, other body fluids, and tissues of infected people. Ebola virus can also be mistaken for other common infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera, leptospirosis, plague, rickettsia, relapsing fever, meningitis, hepatitis, and hemorrhagic fevers. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that these diseases be ruled out before the diagnosis of Ebola virus.

Many of these cases demonstrate that the general public is not well-informed about these disease entities and is open to prejudice and bias to patients with these illnesses. Therefore, it is crucial to notify and rectify misconception and false belief that the general public has acquired through mass media. The medical community must educate people about the mode of transmission and prevention of disease, rather than solely focusing on death rates and exaggerating statistical information that horrify the general public. It is only through proper education that the general public, and even medical professionals, develop a better understanding about these infections and prevent discrimination from occurring against patients with these viral illnesses that are not actually contagious as people believe it to be.

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