Lesson 1:

Stages of infection
•Have you ever been sick?
•Why do you get sick?
•What do you do when you
get sick?
•How will you
prevent being sick?
 What is infection?
• Infection is a condition • Infectious or
in which pathogens,
communicable
such as bacteria and
diseases can
viruses, enter the body
spread from one
and multiply.
living thing to
• This process causes the another.
symptoms of a disease.
What are the stages of infection?

•When the body contracts an

infectious disease, it undergoes
the five stages of infection.
 1. Incubation Stage
• It is the time between the exposure to a
contagious disease and the appearance of
symptoms.
• Incubation period varies from hours to
month, depending on the type of pathogen.
• Colds can develop in a few hours.
 2. Prodromal Stage
• Generally lasts about one or two days, which
the body reacts to the presence of pathogen.
• Signs and symptoms of the disease show
during this stage.
• The disease is now communicable at this
stage.
 3. Acute Stage
•It is the period when the disease is
at its highest point that the signs
and symptoms can be clinically
tested to diagnose the disease.
 4. Declining Stage
•It is the period when symptoms start to
subside and the patient may feel
improvement but still cannot return to
doing normal activities.
•The infection is still present but now
reduced.
 5. Convalescent stage
•It is when the patient
recovers his/her strength
and returns to his/her
normal state of health.
• By understanding the chain of infection, the
sick person must intervene to prevent the
infection from developing any further.
• When a sick person acquires an infection,
he/she must observe signs and symptoms of
infection and take appropriate actions to
prevent the spread like staying away from
other people, and taking the doctor’s advice
seriously.
•Infection follows a progressive course
as explained above.
•The severity of the sick person’s
illness depends on the extent of the
infection, the pathogenicity of the
microorganism and susceptibility of
the host.
•What are the possible things
or activities that you might
acquire diseases?
•How can you prevent
acquiring
infections/diseases?