AI in Early Detection of Infectious Diseases

By: Poojitha Nagishetti, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science), Student of Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science), Madanapalle Institute of Technology and Science, Angallu,517325, Andhra Pradesh. poojimurali2330@gmail.com

Abstract –

A flair for contagious diseases is more fatal and severe health issue all over the world. Viral diseases transmit easily, and at times, it causes death, in other words, fatal. The normal ways applied in diagnosis of infectious disease consume time and sometimes the results are disappointing. In general, the infectious diseases are those diseases, which are caused by some microorganisms belonging to the following categories: For instance; bacteria, viral agents, fungi, and parasitic agents. These cause the infection to a person either directly or indirectly. That is why utilization of Artificial Intelligence we can easily identify the disease and in earliest stage. It has the possibility of processing big medical data to identify symptoms of the disease and unrecognized patterns. Upon the execution of this article, the writer aims at passing his knowledge to the readers concerning the infectious diseases and highlighting how artificial intelligence helps in the early prediction of the disease. as well, people will be talking about kinds of infectious diseases, how a particular individual can contract the sickness, how the AI aids in identifying the disease in its preliminary stage, and how the AI supports the physicians. It also demonstrates the advantages such as early diagnosis, highly efficient and accurate prognosis together with a challenge and prevention measures that are basic. Thus, the use of AI can improve the identification of the infectious diseases that can make individuals healthier and safer.

Keywords – Artificial Intelligence, Infectious diseases, Early detection

Introduction –

Pathologic manifestations and communicable diseases have been a concern to the society for many centuries’ now. These food diseases are attributable to pathogen; the pathogen could be bacteria, virus, fungi, and the parasites also[1]. These are the germs that take the disease close to a person depending on the mode of transmission. Most of the time the infection causes fever and fatigue. But in some cases, it gets more severe and may lead to death.

A person can be affected by the infection in two ways that is with direct contact are without contact through any medium. Many of the microorganisms live in and the body of a living being. Most of them are not harmful and they are even helpful to the human body. But some organisms will cause the infection that led to the common symptoms like rashes, fever, itching, cough, cold, fever and fatigue. There are also situations where the impact of the infection can be mitigated due to the immune system of the given persons[2]. It can also be understood according to the health of the person if the person who is immune is good then he will influence less and if the person who is immune is less then he will affect more.

Infectious diseases not only depend on immune system it also includes medical history, type of infection, and the daily routine work. Some infectious diseases can pass through person to person, some are transmitted through insects and animals, and some may be from contaminated food and water are being exposed to the environment.

Traditional methods are dependent on laboratory tests and medical evaluation, it is very time-consuming process and may not give the authority to cure[3]. A person can be affected by the infection in two ways that is with direct contact are without contact through many medium. By using artificial intelligence, we can easily detect the disease with more accurately and require less time. It can analyse complex medical data, imaging data, and the medical history of a patient. By using advanced AI-powered models we can easily detect the infection at early stage before it gets more worst[4].

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS THAT LEAD TO INFECTION DISEASES –

Infectious diseases are those diseases which are acquired from pathogenic agents that include bacteria, virus, fungi and or parasites[5]. Epidemiological diseases in most of the cases are transmitted through small consultant agents including the bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic organisms. Because of this ability, these microorganisms can be transmitted in several ways hence are related to several infectious diseases. Below are the chief factors that lead to the occurrence of infectious diseases: Here are the main causes of infectious diseases.

1. Bacteria – These are organisms that can hardly be seen with the naked eyes and for their’ bodies, the cell wall is not united and are involved with the disease-causing process in human beings. Here are the main bacterial infections which are usually attendant with the health situation under discussion.

• This is so since strep throat is a coming together or a sum of the Streptococcus bacteria making an entry into the throat hence the name.
• A disease, which is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis also known as tubercle bacillus that mainly impacts on the lungs.
• Pap-resistant Escherichia coli related UTIs.
• Pneumonia separated considering the contributing bacteria and Streptococcus pneumoniae regarded as the bacteria for pneumonia.

2. Viruses – These are disease causing parasite which are of microscopic sizes and cannot be seen under light microscopy and cannot reproduce outside their host cell. Viral infections that can be grouped in some categories are: Some of the viral infections that fall in some categories are:

• Seasonal Inter-tern virus: vary caused by the varsity of flu.
• Cold suffer from rhinoviruses Killing, 2001 Flu: SUMMARY OF VIRAL INFECTIONS and Influenza viruses Cold: Rhinoviruses Andrews (2002) (additional table 2)
• Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 bringing about the coronavirus disease fondly referred to as COVID -19.
• The disease that is often acquired from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus mostly abbreviated as HIV is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome abbreviated as AIDS.
• This involves expanding on and focusing on the viruses associated with the disease inclusive of Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E.

3. Fungi – Since they are spore forming organisms, fungi can cause infections to the body most especially to clients with weakened or damaged immune system. Some common fungal infections include Widespread fungal diseases include:

• This problem takes place where an individual is infected by Trichophyton fungi especially athlete’s foot.
• This is due to dermatophytes and some of its other names are ring worm.
• Disorders that occur due to the overgrowth and penetration of the tissues by Candida species.
• A communicable disease of people living in community; pneumonia caused by Histoplasma capsulatum also known as the American Disease.

4. Parasites – Other similar organisms are parasites that reside on or inside a host organism and harm the host. Some common parasitic infections include Among the common parasitic infections are.

• Malaria is one disease arising from a protozoan parasite, more specifically a Plasmodium species through an infected Anopheles mosquito.
• Theatre acquired giardiasis due to giardia lamblia.
• Tropical disease which occurs because of protozoan falls in the Toxoplasma Genus, of species gondii.
• Infections of round worms, tape worms and flukes and other related parasitic illnesses involving humans.

Modes of Transmission –

These diseases can be passed through direct contact, through contact with a contaminated surface or through contact with an affected person’s secretions such as saliva, blood, sweat, among others[6]. It is therefore important that these modes are understood to avoid spreading of illnesses. Here are the main modes of transmission: Here are the main modes of transmission:

1. Direct Contact

Person-to-Person Contact:

• The direct contact between a carrier of a certain disease and a non-carrier.
• These can be caused by touching, kissing, or any sexual practice.
• Diseases: HIV/AIDS, herpes, cold, influenza.

Animal-to-Person Contact:

• Transmission is from animals to humans.
• Some can occur when an animal bites, scratches, or handles the victim.
• Diseases: Rabies, anthrax, ring worm.

2. Indirect Contact

Fomite Transmission:

• This is the route that involves encountering contaminated objects or surfaces.
• There are different walking times of pathogens on surfaces.
• Diseases: Else; Norovirus- vomiting and stomach up-sets, common cold.

3. Droplet Transmission

Respiratory Droplets:

• Contraction is through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes or simply speaks.
• These droplets go a short distance (up to one and half arm lengths) and contaminate people in Mouth, nose, and eyes.
• Diseases: Flu, coronavirus disease, whooping cough.

4. Airborne Transmission

Aerosolized Particles:

• Minions are on tiny particles of dust or in micro droplets dispersed in air for hours.
• Inhalation of these particles could in turn cause infections.
• Diseases: Tuberculosis, measles, chickenpox / Tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases that are characteristic of children’s infections.

5. Vector-Borne Transmission

Arthropod Vectors:

• It is the process where the vector such as mosquitoes, ticks or fleas transmit pathogen from one host to the other.
• Vectors participate the spread of diseases through stinging or biting.
• Diseases: Malaria transmitted by mosquitoes, Lyme disease transmitted by ticks, plague by fleas.

6. Foodborne and Waterborne Transmission

Contaminated Food and Water:

• Drinking water or food which has encounter certain pathogen causing organism.
• Some natural causes include poor hygiene, poor handling of foods, water borne infections.
• Diseases: Gastro enteritis, typhoid fever, gastro enteritis.

7. Vertical Transmission

Mother-to-Child Transmission:

• Some germs are passed on genetically from the mother of the baby at the time when the baby is being born or through the breast milk.
• Transmitted through the placenta or during birth if it is passing through the birth canal and through breast milk as well.
• Diseases: HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B.

8. Zoonotic Transmission

Animal Reservoirs:

• Those diseases that begin or exist in animals then spread to humans.
• May entails handling of animals, consuming animal products or meeting environment that has been in contact with animals.
• Diseases: Avian influenza, swine flu, cattle plague or Bang’s disease, Undulant fever, or Somali’s disease.

The Process and Importance of Early Detection using AI –

They have been employed in identification of the signs and risks of contracting the infectious diseases in a manner that the other traditional techniques cannot[7]. Here’s how AI is making a significant impact: In recent years the use of Artificial Intelligence that scans large data sets and look for patterns that may escape human analysis has come to the rescue in the early diagnosis of infectious diseases[8]. The following points elaborate the change that AI is bringing about:

1. Analysing Medical Images:

AI can look at medical images such as X-rays and CT, identify the initial symptoms of diseases like pneumonia or tuberculosis. These machine learning models can learn those changes and make diagnoses at an earlier and more accurate time.

2. Predicting Outbreaks:

AI can use information from, for instance, social media accounts, traveling histories, and weather conditions to predict the spread of diseases. Alerts can be provided early by AI in real-time analysis, leading to better preparedness to prevent further progress of the disease.

3. Monitoring Disease Spread:

AI assist in the identification of trend in the spread of infectious diseases from health facilities and laboratories. This real time tracking enables the health authorities to attend to the new risks as they happen and distribute resources appropriately.

4. Assisting in Diagnosing Diseases:

With the use of AI, diagnosis of diseases can be improved through analysis of patients’ symptoms, medical history, and lab results thus receiving proper treatment at the right time.

Let me briefly focus on the main application areas of AI regarding the identification of infectious diseases.

COVID-19: AI has been applied in diagnosis of COVID-19 using CT scans and X-rays, as well as to forecast its further development, as well as to successfully prevent it.

Tuberculosis: Mobile apps with AI can obtain chest X-rays from a smartphone and diagnose TB at the first stage to areas with restricted access to medical care.

Malaria: Using AI, one can easily diagnose malaria parasites from blood samples and hence improve on the time taken in diagnosing the diseases.

Influenza: Through data mining, AI to extract early warning signs of influenza infections with the help of data from the social networks, search engines and health records.

Figure 1 explains the overview of AI’s role in early detection of infectious diseases.

Advantages of using AI in Early Detection:

Speed: It also quickly processes big quantities of data, giving fast results crucial at the beginning of detection of threats.

Accuracy: Another factor is that both services based on AI analyse data in a way that might be unnoticeable for people and make fewer mistakes at diagnoses.

Scalability: The incorporation of AI systems is preferred due to the large-scale disease surveillance and monitoring, as the systems can handle data from multiple sources at the same time.

Cost-Effectiveness: AI facilitates early diagnosis and treatment, therefore, lowering the costs of managing diseases, particularly, when they have not affected many people. Table 1 Explains about the role of AI in early detection of infectious diseases.

Table 1: AI’s Role in Early Detection of Infectious Diseases

Aspect	Description
Data Sources	Medical Images, social media, Travel Records, Weather Data
AI Processing	Machine Learning, Deep Learning
AI Applications	Analyzing Medical Images, Predicting Outbreaks, Monitoring Disease Spread, Assisting in Diagnosis
Benefits	Speed, Accuracy, Scalability, Cost-Effectiveness
Challenges	Data Quality, Privacy Concerns, Integration with Healthcare Systems
Future Directions	Advanced AI Techniques, Enhanced Data Security, Seamless System Integration

Challenges and Future Directions:

In essence, the performance of AI in diagnosing of infectious diseases on early stages depends on the quality data used[9]. This information must be clean and a true reflection of the study population to obtain credible results. Concerns are also presented related to privacy, as there are certain threats to patient’s privacy in case AI is applied in healthcare[10]. In addition, AI techniques must be embedded in current healthcare structures and acquire popularity among the health-care staff. Mitigating these factors is important for the effective implementation and growth of AI in early diagnosis and handling of the infections.

Conclusion:

The primary outcomes produced by the application of AI in infectious diseases include early detection of the diseases, and their management. Since it provides speed, accuracy, scalability, and cost-efficiency, AI can enhance the health care system’s disease detection and prediction, outbreak anticipation, and containment. Some areas are data quality, data privacy, and data integration since their management will define the overall achievement and realization of disease detection using AI. With the evolution of technology in the foreseeable future, AI shall be critical to the monitor age of outbreaks of infectious diseases to avoid the spread of diseases.

References –

1. N. D. Wolfe, C. P. Dunavan, and J. Diamond, “Origins of major human infectious diseases,” Nature, vol. 447, no. 7142, pp. 279–283, May 2007, doi: 10.1038/nature05775.
2. M. Iddir et al., “Strengthening the Immune System and Reducing Inflammation and Oxidative Stress through Diet and Nutrition: Considerations during the COVID-19 Crisis,” Nutrients, vol. 12, no. 6, Art. no. 6, Jun. 2020, doi: 10.3390/nu12061562.
3. M. Moslehpour, A. Firman, J. Sulistiawan, P.-K. Lin, and H. T. T. Nguyen, “Unraveling the Puzzle of Turnover Intention: Exploring the Impact of Home-Work Interface and Working Conditions on Affective Commitment and Job Satisfaction,” Behav. Sci., vol. 13, no. 9, Art. no. 9, Sep. 2023, doi: 10.3390/bs13090699.
4. S. Aslan, “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CLINICAL APPLICATIONS FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES: DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT AND IMMUNIZATION,” Exp. Appl. Med. Sci., vol. 5, no. 2, Art. no. 2, doi: 10.46871/eams.1497329.
5. J. Verhoef, K. van Kessel, and H. Snippe, “Immune Response in Human Pathology: Infections Caused by Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi, and Parasites,” in Nijkamp and Parnham’s Principles of Immunopharmacology, M. J. Parnham, F. P. Nijkamp, and A. G. Rossi, Eds., Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019, pp. 165–178. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-10811-3_10.
6. M. Rahaman, C.-Y. Lin, and M. Moslehpour, “SAPD: Secure Authentication Protocol Development for Smart Healthcare Management Using IoT,” in 2023 IEEE 12th Global Conference on Consumer Electronics (GCCE), Oct. 2023, pp. 1014–1018. doi: 10.1109/GCCE59613.2023.10315475.
7. S. S. Morse, “Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases.,” Emerg. Infect. Dis., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7–15, 1995.
8. K. Santosh and L. Gaur, “Case Studies—AI for Infectious Disease,” in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Public Healthcare: Opportunities and Societal Impact, K. Santosh and L. Gaur, Eds., Singapore: Springer, 2021, pp. 55–63. doi: 10.1007/978-981-16-6768-8_7.
9. B. D. Alfia, A. Asroni, S. Riyadi, and M. Rahaman, “Development of Desktop-Based Employee Payroll: A Case Study on PT. Bio Pilar Utama,” Emerg. Inf. Sci. Technol., vol. 4, no. 2, Art. no. 2, Dec. 2023, doi: 10.18196/eist.v4i2.20732.
10. D. V. Parums, “Editorial: Infectious Disease Surveillance Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its Role in Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness,” Med. Sci. Monit. Int. Med. J. Exp. Clin. Res., vol. 29, pp. e941209-1-e941209-4, Jun. 2023, doi: 10.12659/MSM.941209.
11. Kumari, P., Shankar, A., Behl, A., Pereira, V., Yahiaoui, D., Laker, B., … & Arya, V. (2024). Investigating the barriers towards adoption and implementation of open innovation in healthcare. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 200, 123100.
12. Khichar, S. C., Yadav, A. K., Misra, M., & Gupta, B. B. (2024, May). An Enhanced Authentication Protocol for IoT-AmI Environment. In 2024 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (IWCMC) (pp. 691-696). IEEE.

Cite As

Nagishetti P (2024) AI in Early Detection of Infectious Diseases, Insights2Techinfo, pp.1

731800cookie-checkAI in Early Detection of Infectious Diseasesyes