afflict / inflict
Who suffers the harm versus who deals it.
Both are transitive verbs. Afflict takes the sufferer as its object: disease, grief, or trouble afflicts a person. Inflict takes the harm as its object and names the sufferer with on: someone inflicts a wound, a penalty, or damage on someone else. After afflicted, both with and by are used; with is the usual preposition for a condition (afflicted with arthritis), by for an agent or event (afflicted by drought).
Examples
Use Measles afflicted the village.
Use The hailstorm inflicted dents on every car in the lot.
Avoid The hailstorm afflicted dents on every car in the lot. (Change afflicted to inflicted.)
Use In his last years, the composer was afflicted with gout.
Use The orchard was afflicted by a late frost.