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Late in the 20th century, HIV emerged as a human disease.
© Oliver Meckes
Deer are often hosts of the ticks, Ixodes damini, which transfer Lyme Disease to humans. © Clay Myers
The American Dog Tick, a reservoir, carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, but doesn't get sick itself. © Foster and Needham,
Fran Heyl Assoc.
Ixodes damini, a vector, carries Lyme Disease between deer and humans. © Bernard Furnival,
Fran Heyl Assoc.
 

Emergent diseases:
A disease previously not recognized in the human population.

Endemic:
Particular to, and recurring in, a specific locale.

Epidemic:
An outbreak of an infectious disease that spreads beyond a local.

Epidemiology:
The study of the spread of disease.

Host:
Any organism that provides food or shelter for another organism, internally or externally.

Microbe:
A microscopic organism (typically referring to bacteria, viruses, certain algae, and protozoa).

Pandemic:
An epidemic that achieves global proportions.

Pathogen:
An agent that causes disease, such as a virus or bacterium.

Pathogenic:
Disease-causing.

Reservoir:
A kind of host, one which carries the pathogen without harm to itself, and which serves as the source of infection for the other host organisms.

Vector:
An organism that carries a disease between one organism and another.
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