If a disease is communicable, how does the first person get it ?
343147
the doctor was partially right, for some viruses. many diseases we get from mutations in bacteria or viruses, from animals, from food, from a new environment we aren't used to, etc.\n\np.s. Any expert can tell you exactly how to contract the bubonic plague (often called the black death, the black plague, the plague, etc.) that wiped out 1/4 of Europe in its time. People got it from fleas. It is often associated with rats because rats carry fleas, and therefore the plague. When the flea bit an infected person, and then someone else the other person got infected, as did anything else the flea bit. And with the poor sanitation a few hundred years ago, and their total lack of knowledge as to what caused it, it is no wonder the plague wiped out entire towns.
381262
a virus can be transferable to another person. Usually by direct contact kissing etc.. Other forms of transmission are coughing or transference by touching an object and then another person or persons do the same. depends on the virus and the object touched.
346948
Not sure what you're looking for besides the obvious....\n\nAirborne spread is much faster than person-to-person.  For a person-to-person disease, the infected person has to come in physical contact with someone else to spread the disease.  For airborne transmission, the infected person just needs to have been in the same room.
798862
Easily.  If there was a cut or anything in the mouth while this happened, the infection an be transmitted.
622609
The first documented case was in 1959 in the Congo, the only reason we even know is that the man was sick and they took and froze his blood. The linked article is fairly recent and explains the origins of HIV and the method they used to find it.
267856
TB is a communicable disease and has to be reported to the local health department.The epidemiologist there keep track of infectious diseases and they in cooperation with all state agency compile the statistics
206736
Hi! When a a disease is reported to the health department, it comes to ... ME! Here's what happens: \n\nWe receive a Confidential Morbidity Report (CMR)from either a lab, a hospital, private physician, veterinarian, etc. They either call us, fax us or mail us depending on the disease. Where i am, there are 85 reportables.\n\nWhen I get the CMR, I call the doctor to verify. We discuss whether the person is really sick or not (often we get false reports, usually lab results). Then I request documents (history/physical, ID consult, discharge summary) to examine the patient's history. My boss (who is a doctor, whereas I am en epidemiologist) and I talk about the patient.\n\nThen with my boss' green light, I sign a paper that says "Yes, this person is a case of _______ disease." Then the patient becomes a statistic in our computer. We do not release any of this info to the outside world. If I did, I'd be out of a job!\n\nSometimes, I have to call the patient. For example, when we do surveillance for brucellosis (a bioterrorism reportable), I need to ask the patient about travel and the foods they ate (common risk factors for the disease). The patient usually freaks out. Then I spend 15 minutes on the phone calming him/her down and assuring them I'm not going to arrest them or have them quarantined. I spend my 10 mintues asking questions off a report form. Then I hang up and get a cup of tea to calm myself down after getting yelled at by the patient (I'm small, cute and harmless -- why y'all yelling at me???).\n\nWhen I have my info together, I assemble a short report and sign it off. No names are used, and the documents i have get shredded.\n\nSo yeah, if you're worried about your hepatitis being reported, don't fret. We'll only keep you off work if you are a contagious hazard (like typhoid in food handlers). Otherwise, you are just another statistic in my computer, or a piece of paper in my inbox.
485155
Well, if you don't know the person and had no health checks you will most definitely contract some sort of disease.....AIDS for one.  Maybe you should think twice in doing it if you are not absolutely sure about that persons health history.
947197
Pox viruses can be transmitted between species.
832175
Breast feeding, if the mother hasn't been treated and is contagious.  \n\nYou don't get TB by just touching the clothes or shaking the hands of someone who is infected. Tuberculosis is spread (transmitted) primarily from person to person during close contact by breathing infected air.\n\nThere is a form of tuberculosis, however, that is transmitted by drinking unpasteurized milk. Related bacteria, called Mycobacterium bovis, cause this form of TB. It previously was a major cause of TB in children, but rarely causes TB now since most milk is pasteurized (a heating process that kills thebacteria).
340691
Well, I guess it depends on what kind of illness.  Is it contagious?  Otherwise, most people will be sympathetic to someone who is sick.
457389
By getting sick. Most likely pnuemonia.
1124924
Here's some more info about how colds are caught:\n\nThe viruses are transmitted from person to person by droplets from coughs or sneezes. The droplets or droplet nuclei are either inhaled directly, or transmitted from hand to hand via handshakes or objects such as door knobs, and then introduced to the nasal passages when the hand touches the nose or eyes.\n\nThe virus takes advantage of sneezes and coughs to infect the next person before it is defeated by the body's immune system. Sneezes expel a significantly larger concentration of virus "cloud" than coughing. The "cloud" is partly invisible and falls at a rate slow enough to last for hours—with part of the droplet nuclei evaporating and leaving much smaller and invisible "droplet nuclei" in the air. Droplets from turbulent sneezing or coughing or hand contact also can last for hours on surfaces, although less virus can be recovered from porous surfaces such as wood or paper towel than non-porous surfaces such as a metal bar. A sufferer is most infectious within the first three days of the illness. Symptoms, however, are not necessary for viral shedding or transmission, as a percentage of asymptomatic subjects exhibit viruses in nasal swabs, likely controlling the virus at concentrations too low for them to have symptoms.
1108603
They think it began in Africa among animals and spread to the humans who ate those animals.  It is spread through bodily fluids--blood transfusions, sexual intercourse and intravenous drug use are the most common ways it is spread.
1125000
If you got a shot at the doctor, you would say "I've just been immunized so now I have immunity because my doctor gave me an immunization." But if you could not get a disease again because you had already had that disease (like I had measles and mumps when I was a kid), then you would say "I have immunity" to whatever. On the show, they have to win immunity, so I would argue they are not being immunized by someone else or receiving an immunization, because they had to develop their own immunity, just like I did by suffering from those diseases. And the lawyer's clients have to earn immunity by giving up other people. The police don't immunize them. So I think I'm with you on this one.
641974
Rabies can only be passed from person to person through bodily fluids. Just like when a dog with rabies bites a human, the saliva gets into the humans blood stream, giving it to the human. It works the same way. If you suspect that you or someone else has it, it is best to get help and fast because it is fatal and should be taken seriously.
533758
The  best way is to have a strong immune system and to be exposed to it at a young age so you prevent sickness from the same disease later on. Vaccinations and common hygene will also prevent sickness. Of course, nothing except abstinance and caution can protect one from something like AIDS.