Download Excel File List of Human Diseases Associated With Infectious Pathogens

Many chronic diseases are linked or associated with infectious pathogens. A disease is said to be linked or associated with an infectious pathogen when that pathogen is found more frequently in patients with the disease than in healthy controls. Often, infectious pathogens associated with a disease may be suspected of playing a causal role in that disease — and some scientists believe a substantial portion of chronic diseases may in part be caused by infectious agents — though association alone does not automatically prove causality (because correlation does not imply causation). Indeed, the terms linked and associated are used here in a strict technical sense: they mean there is a frequent co-occurrence of certain pathogens in certain diseases; but it should not be read that linked and associated imply there is a proven causal relationship between pathogen and disease. An observed association only flags up the possibility that there might be a causal relation.