There are many different ways to categorize or classify different diseases and health problems. Diseases classified by organs or organ systems would be diseases such as kidney or heart disease. You could also classify disease by their causative agents, which may be biological, being viral or from bacteria; chemical agents, such as drugs, food additives, or air pollutants; or physical agents, being heat or light, for example.
There are two categories of disease; communicable and noncommunicable. Communicable diseases are highly contagious and are easily transmitted from one person to another. Examples of a communicable disease would be the common cold, pneumonia, or the syphilis. A noncommunicable disease cannot be transmitted from one person to another. An example or two of a noncommunicable disease would be diabetes or heart disease.
Another aspect of disease is whether it is acute or chronic. An acute disease that is also communicable would be the common cold because that is considered to last shorter than three months and can be easily transmitted from one person to another. An acute, noncommunicable disease example would be appendicitis because it may be short-lived but cannot be transmitted from one person to another. Chronic diseases last three months or considerably longer. A chronic, communicable disease example is AIDS. A chronic, noncommunicable disease would be something like diabetes or coronary heart disease.
There are three different levels to preventing such diseases. Primary prevention is the education given to people to avoid the disease or forestall it. Secondary prevention might be the health screenings you get in order to provide prompt treatment, and Tertiary prevention is the retraining, re-educating, and rehabilitation of the patient after the disease is already known.
The diseases we are concerned about now are not necessarily communicable diseases but have turned to concern on noncommunicable diseases and how to prevent them by changing lifestyle choices. It was also interesting to see the different types of diseases and those that most often caused death.
Very good summary with lots of good details about the definitions. Its a little bit short, but over all a good summary of chapter four. If someone read this who had never taken a community health course before, they would have a general idea.
ReplyDeleteThe summary is very easy to follow and is understandable. I like the examples provided of communicable and noncommunicable diseases.
ReplyDeleteGood Summary. Good attention to detail. Only wish you would have put examples of the diseases we are concerned about today. But even with that said, really good.
ReplyDeleteThe summary was very detailed and well written. The way you guys explained diseases and how they very were very understandable and someone that was from outside of the class would be able to know what you are talking about.
ReplyDelete