Question

Different between carrier and vector

Answer 1

A vector is an organism who passes on a disease without getting sick. A vector actively transmits an infectious agent between infected and susceptible vertebrates. Essentially, vectors can transmit infectious agents in two ways. They can serve as a vehicle whereby the infectious agent is conveyed from one host to another without undergoing a stage of development or multiplication. This is known as mechanical transmission. Alternatively, the infectious agent can undergo some stage of development or multiplication in the vector - this is known as biological transmission.

The term carrier is used to describe an individual that is infected by a disease agent and is capable of disseminating that disease agent but shows no sign of clinical disease. So the carrier has no symptoms of a disease but still passes it on to someone else. Three types of carrier state are recognised.