The genetic theory of infectious diseases: a brief history and selected illustrations.

ABSTRACT: Until the mid-nineteenth century, life expectancy at birth averaged 20 years worldwide, owing mostly to childhood fevers. The germ theory of diseases then gradually overcame the belief that diseases were intrinsic. However, around the turn of the twentieth century, asymptomatic infection was discovered to be much more common than clinical disease. Paradoxically, this observation barely challenged the newly developed notion that infectious diseases were fundamentally extrinsic. Moreover, interindividual variability in the course of infection was typically explained by the emerging immunological (or somatic) theory of infectious diseases, best illustrated by the impact of vaccination. This powerful explanation is, however, best applicable to reactivation and secondary infections, particularl

SUBMITTER: Casanova JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4980761 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature