title: The effectiveness of means of controlling communicable diseases.
abstract: Most communicable diseases are caused by infectious agents that are not visible to the naked eye, which led earlier societies to believe in miasmas and control by quarantine. Although microscopes revealed the agents in the eighteenth century, they were not associated with disease syndromes until the late nineteenth century. Today, vaccines are the most cost-effective means of control.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Warren
mesh_terms: D002669:Child Welfare; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D014330:Tropical Medicine; D014611:Vaccination / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*