• Question: what is the most infectious disease?

    Asked by to Bethany, Hannah, Keith, Peter, Ramya on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by , , , , , .
    • Photo: Bethany Dearlove

      Bethany Dearlove answered on 18 Jun 2014:


      The most infectious disease I know of is measles, although it is relatively uncommon nowadays due to the MMR vaccine. Measles is spread in droplet form by coughing and sneezing – you can get it by either breathing in these droplets directly, or if the droplets have landed on a surface, touching the infected before touching your nose or mouth. The virus can survive in the environment for several hours, so lots of people could come into contact with it in that time. Numbers-wise, measles has a basic reproductive number of 12-18. This means that on average, an infected person will pass the disease on to 12-18 more people – that’s a lot of people to pass on a disease to!

    • Photo: Peter Elliott

      Peter Elliott answered on 19 Jun 2014:


      I would say norovirus is probably the most infectious disease. Each year in the UK it is estimate that close to 1 million people are infected with it. This happens in just a few months over winter. I am just glad it is seasonal otherwise I am sure the number would be much higher. A study of one outbreak in the Netherlands estimated that one infected person infected on average 14 new people.

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