General Principles of Infectious Microbes and Disease

Course overview

Understanding the causation and transmission of infectious disease is important in preventing and controlling the disease. While medication exists to treat infectious diseases, pathogenic bacteria share the instinct to survive. Although bacteria carry only a single chromosome, evolution provides them with mechanisms that allow them to survive aggressive antimicrobial treatment. Surviving bacteria are often resistant; these survivors reproduce and, by natural selection, become the dominant organism in the host. This course provides information about infections, antibiotic resistance, colonization, and breaking the chain of disease. The goal of this course is to broaden and update nurses and respiratory therapists knowledge of infectious disease causation and prevention.