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What is the difference between Infectious Disease and Communicable Diseases?

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Admin:
I have received this question through an email from a Student:

--- Quote ---I am confused, what is the difference between infectious and communicable disease, some books are same but others are different
--- End quote ---
There is often confusion between these two terms, although they mean the same thing, Infectious disease generally refer just to an infectious transmitted directly from an infected host to a susceptible host; for example, Hepatitis B or C are infectious where Malaria is a communicable disease transmitted indirectly by mosquito.

For more clarification, we can say Communicable disease can be transmitted from an infected person, animal or reservoir to a susceptible host, either directly or indirectly via an animal, plant vector or the inanimate environment, from this paragraph we can say that all infectious diseases are communicable diseases but All communicable diseases are not infectious.

From that definition, Schistosomiasis and Filariasis are communicable diseases while TB and HIV are infectious diseases.

Although you may come across that some literature are using these two terms interchangeably, therefore do not confuse....

If you have easier clarification than that, you can comment below.

Thanks

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