Disease

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"Human disease" redirects here. For the Slayer song, see Soundtrack to
the Apocalypse.

"Flare-up" redirects here. For the Transformers character,
see Flareup.

"Medical condition" redirects here. For the descriptive
terminology using words such as "good", "serious", "critical", etc., see Medical state.

For other uses, see Disease
(disambiguation).

A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism.
It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific
symptoms and signs.[1][2]
It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease,
or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases.
In humans, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that
causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or
death to the person afflicted,
or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense,
it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections.
Isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and
atypical variations of
structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may
be considered distinguishable categories. Diseases usually affect people not
only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting and living with many
diseases can alter one's perspective on life, and their personality.

Death due to disease is called death by natural
causes. There are four main types of disease: pathogenic disease, deficiency
disease, hereditary disease, and physiological disease.

Diseases can also be classified as communicable and non-communicable
disease.

Contents

1 Terminology

1.1 Disease

1.2 Illness

1.3 Disorder

1.4 Medical
condition

1.5 Morbidity

2 Stages

3 Scope

4 Causes and
transmissibility

5 Burdens of
disease

6 Social significance of
disease

7 Language of
disease

8 Epidemiology

9 Prevention

10 Treatments

11 See also

12 References

13 External
links

[edit]
Terminology

In many cases, the terms disease, disorder, morbidity
and illness are used interchangeably.[3]
In some situations, specific terms are considered preferable.

[edit]
Disease

The term disease broadly refers to any condition that impairs normal
function. Commonly, this term is used to refer specifically to infectious diseases,
which are clinically evident diseases that result from the presence of pathogenic microbial agents,
including viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular organisms, and
aberrant proteins known as prions. An infection that does not and
will not produce clinically evident impairment of normal functioning, such as
the presence of the normal bacteria and yeasts in the
gut, is not considered a disease; by contrast, an infection that is
asymptomatic during its incubation period, but
expected to produce symptoms later, is usually considered a disease. Non-infectious
diseases are all other diseases, including most forms of cancer, heart disease, and genetic disease.

[edit]
Illness

Illness and
sickness are generally used as synonyms for disease.[4]
However, this term is occasionally used to refer specifically to the patient's
personal experience of their disease.[5][6]
In this model, it is possible for a person to be diseased without being ill, (to
have an objectively definable, but asymptomatic, medical condition), and to be
ill without being diseased (such as when a person perceives a
normal experience as a medical condition, or medicalizes a non-disease
situation in his or her life). Illness is often not due to infection but a
collection of evolved responses,
sickness behavior,
by the body aids the clearing of infection. Such aspects of illness can include
lethargy, depression, anorexia, sleepiness, hyperalgesia, and inability
to concentrate.[7][8][9]

[edit]
Disorder

In medicine, a disorder is a functional abnormality or
disturbance.[10]
Medical disorders can be categorized into mental disorders, physical disorders, genetic disorders, emotional
and behavioral disorders, and functional
disorders.

The term disorder is often considered more value-neutral and less
stigmatizing than the terms disease or illness, and therefore is
preferred terminology in some circumstances. In mental health, the term mental disorder is used
as a way of acknowledging the complex interaction of biological, social,
and psychological factors in psychiatric conditions.
However, the term disorder is also used in many other areas of medicine,
primarily to identify physical disorders that are not caused by infectious
organisms, such as metabolic
disorders.

[edit]
Medical condition

A medical condition is a broad term that includes all diseases and
disorders, but can also include injuries and normal health
situations, such as pregnancy, that might affect a
person's health, benefit from medical assistance, or have implications for
medical treatments. While the term medical condition generally includes
mental illnesses, in some contexts the term is used specifically to denote any
illness, injury, or disease except for mental illnesses. The Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the widely used
psychiatric manual that defines all mental disorders, uses
the term general medical condition to refer to all diseases, illnesses,
and injuries except for mental disorders.[11]
This usage is also commonly seen in the psychiatric literature. Some health insurance
policies also define a medical condition as any illness, injury, or
disease except for psychiatric illnesses.[12]

As it is more value-neutral than terms
like disease, the term medical condition is sometimes preferred by
people with health issues that they do not consider to be deleterious, such as
pregnancy. On the other hand, by emphasizing the medical nature of the
condition, this term is sometimes rejected, such as by proponents of the autism rights
movement.

The term medical condition is used as a synonym for medical state, where it
describes a patient's current state, as seen from a medical standpoint. This
usage is seen in statements that describe a patient as being "in critical
condition", for example.

[edit]
Morbidity

Morbidity (from Latin
morbidus: sick, unhealthy) refers to a diseased state, disability, or
poor health due to any cause.[13]
The term may be used to refer to the existence of any form of disease, or to the
degree that the health condition affects the patient. Among severely ill
patients, the level of morbidity is often measured by ICU scoring
systems.

Comorbidity is the
simultaneous presence of two medical conditions, such as a person with schizophrenia and substance abuse.

In epidemiology and
actuarial science,
the term morbidity rate can refer
to either the incidence rate,
or the prevalence of a
disease or medical condition. This measure of sickness is contrasted with the mortality rate of a
condition, which is the proportion of people dying during a given time
interval.

[edit]
Stages

In an infectious disease, the incubation period is
the time between infection and the appearance of symptoms. The latency period is the
time between infection and the ability of the disease to spread to another
person, which may precede, follow, or be simultaneous with the appearance of
symptoms. Some viruses also exhibit a dormant phase, called viral
latency, in which the virus hides in the body in an inactive state. For
example, varicella
zoster virus causes chickenpox in the acute phase; after
recovery from chickenpox, the virus may remain dormant in nerve cells for many
years, and later cause herpes zoster
(shingles).

A cure is the end of a
medical condition or a treatment that is very likely to end it, while remission
refers to the disappearance, possibly temporarily, of symptoms. Complete
remission is the best possible outcome for incurable diseases.

A flare-up can refer to either the recurrence of symptoms or an onset of more
severe symptoms.

A refractory disease is a disease that resists treatment, especially an
individual case that resists treatment more than is normal for the specific
disease in question.

Progressive
disease is a disease whose typical natural course is the worsening of the
disease until death, serious debility, or organ failure occurs. Slowly
progressive diseases are also chronic diseases; many
are also degenerative
diseases. The opposite of progressive disease is stable disease or
static disease: a medical condition that exists, but does not get better
or worse.

[edit]
Scope

A localized
disease is one that affects only one part of the body, such as athlete's foot or an eye infection.

A disseminated
disease has spread to other parts; with cancer, this is usually called metastatic
disease.

A systemic
disease is a disease that affects the entire body, such as influenza or high blood
pressure.

[edit]
Causes and
transmissibility

Main article: Transmission
(medicine)

Only some diseases such as influenza are contagious and
commonly believed to be infectious. The micro-organisms that cause these
diseases are known as pathogens and include varieties of bacteria, viruses,
protozoa and fungi. Infectious diseases
can be transmitted, e.g. by hand-to-mouth contact with infectious material on
surfaces, by bites of insects or other
carriers of the disease, and from contaminated water or food (often via faecal contamination), etc. In
addition, there are sexually
transmitted diseases. In some cases, micro-organisms that are
not readily spread from person to person play a role, while other diseases can
be prevented or ameliorated with appropriate nutrition or other lifestyle
changes.

Some diseases, such as most (but not all) forms of cancer, heart disease and mental
disorders, are non-infectious
diseases. Many non-infections diseases have a partly or completely genetic
basis (see genetic
disorder) and may thus be transmitted from one generation to another.

Social
determinants of health are the social conditions in which people live which
determine their health. Illnesses are generally related to social, economic,
political, and environmental circumstances. Social determinants of health have
been recognized by several health organizations such as the Public Health Agency
of Canada and the World Health
Organization to greatly influence collective and personal well-being.

When the cause of a disease is poorly understood, societies tend to
mythologize the disease or use it as a metaphor or symbol of whatever
that culture considers to be evil. For example, until the bacterial cause of tuberculosis was discovered
in 1882, experts variously ascribed the disease to heredity, a sedentary lifestyle,
depressed mood, and
overindulgence in sex, rich food, or alcohol—all the social
ills of the time.[14]

[edit]
Burdens of disease

Disease burden is
the impact of a health problem in an area measured by financial cost, mortality,
morbidity, or other indicators.

There are several measures used to quantify the burden imposed by diseases on
people. The years of
potential life lost (YPLL) is a simple estimate of the number of years that
a person's life was shortened due to a disease. For example, if a person dies at
the age of 65 from a disease, and would probably have lived until age 80 without
that disease, then that disease has caused a loss of 15 years of potential life.
YPLL measurements do not account for how disabled a person is before dying, so
the measurement treats a person who dies suddenly and a person who died at the
same age after decades of illness as equivalent. In 2004, the World Health
Organization calculated that 932 million years of potential life were lost
to premature death.[15]

The quality-adjusted
life year (QALY) and disability-adjusted
life year (DALY) metrics are similar, but take into account whether the
person was healthy after diagnosis. In addition to the number of years lost due
to premature death, these measurements add part of the years lost to being sick.
Unlike YPLL, these measurements show the burden imposed on people who are very
sick, but who live a normal lifespan. A disease that has high morbidity, but low
mortality, will have a high DALY and a low YPLL. In 2004, the World Health
Organization calculated that 1.5 billion disability-adjusted life years were
lost to disease and injury.[15]

Disease category

Percent of all YPLLs lost, worldwide[15]

Percent of all DALYs lost, worldwide[15]

Percent of all YPLLs lost, Europe[15]

Percent of all DALYs lost, Europe[15]

Percent of all YPLLs lost, US and Canada[15]

Percent of all DALYs lost, US and Canada[15]

Infectious and parasitic diseases, especially lower
respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria

37%

26%

9%

6%

5%

3%

Neuropsychiatric
conditions, e.g. depression

2%

13%

3%

19%

5%

28%

Injuries, especially motor vehicle
accidents

14%

12%

18%

13%

18%

10%

Cardiovascular
diseases, principally heart attacks and stroke

14%

10%

35%

23%

26%

14%

Premature birth
and other perinatal deaths

11%

8%

4%

2%

3%

2%

Cancer

8%

5%

19%

11%

25%

13%

[edit]
Social significance of
disease

Obesity was a status symbol in
Renaissance culture: "The
Tuscan General Alessandro del Borro", attributed to Andrea Sacchi, 1645.[16]
It is now generally regarded as a disease.

A condition may be considered to be a disease in some cultures or eras but
not in others. For example, obesity can represent wealth and
abundance, and is a status symbol in famine-prone areas and some places hard-hit
by HIV/AIDS.[17]
Epilepsy is considered a
sign of spiritual gifts among the Hmong people.[18]

Sickness confers the social legitimization of certain benefits, such as
illness benefits, work avoidance, and being looked after by others. A person who
responds to a dreaded disease, such as cancer, in a culturally
acceptable fashion may be publicly and privately honored with higher social status.[19]
In return for these benefits, the sick person is obligated to seek treatment and
work to become well once more. As a comparison, consider pregnancy, which is not
usually interpreted as a disease or sickness, even if the mother and baby may
both benefit from medical care.

Most religions grant exceptions from religious duties to people who are sick.
For example, one whose life would be endangered by fasting on Yom Kippur or during Ramadan is exempted from the
requirement, or even forbidden from participating. People who are sick are also
exempted from social duties. For example, ill health is the only socially
acceptable reason for an American to refuse an invitation to the White House.[20]

The identification of a condition as a disease, rather than as simply a
variation of human structure or function, can have significant social or
economic implications. The controversial recognitions as diseases of post-traumatic
stress disorder, also known as "Soldier's heart", "shell shock", and "combat
fatigue;" repetitive motion
injury or repetitive stress
injury (RSI); and Gulf War syndrome has
had a number of positive and negative effects on the financial and other
responsibilities of governments, corporations and institutions towards
individuals, as well as on the individuals themselves. The social implication of
viewing aging as a disease could be
profound, though this classification is not yet widespread. Lepers were a group of afflicted
individuals who were historically shunned and the term "leper" still evokes social stigma. Fear of
disease can still be a widespread social phenomenon, though not all diseases
evoke extreme social stigma.

Social standing and economic status affect health. Diseases of poverty
are diseases that are associated with poverty and low social status;
diseases of
affluence are diseases that are associated with high social and economic
status. Which diseases are associated with which states varies according to
time, place, and technology. Some diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, may
be associated with both poverty (poor food choices) and affluence (long
lifespans and sedentary lifestyles), through different mechanisms. The term diseases of
civilization describes diseases that are more common among older people. For
example, cancer is far more
common in societies in which most members live until they reach the age of 80
than in societies in which most members die before they reach the age of 50.

[edit]
Language of disease

People use metaphors to make sense of
their experiences with disease. The metaphors move disease from an objective
thing that exists to an affective experience. The most
popular metaphors draw on military concepts: Disease is
an enemy that must be feared, fought, battled, and routed. The patient or the
physician is a warrior, rather than a passive victim or bystander. The agents of
communicable diseases are invaders; non-communicable diseases constitute
internal insurrection. Because the threat is urgent, perhaps a matter of life
and death, unthinkably radical, even oppressive, measures are society's and the
patient's moral duty as they courageously mobilize to struggle against
destruction. The War on
Cancer is an example.[21]

Another class of metaphors describes the experience of illness as a journey: The person travels to
or from a place of disease, and changes himself, discovers new information, or
increases his experience along the way. He may travel "on the road to recovery"
or make changes to "get on the right track".[21]
Some are explicitly immigration-themed: the patient has been exiled from the
home territory of health to the land of the ill, changing identity and
relationships in the process.[22]

Some metaphors are disease-specific. Slavery is a common metaphor for
addictions:
The alcoholic is enslaved by drink, and the smoker is captive to nicotine. Some
cancer patients treat the loss of their hair from chemotherapy as a metonymy or metaphor for all
the losses caused by the disease.[21]

Some diseases are used as metaphors for social ills: "Cancer" is a common
description for anything that is endemic and destructive in society, such as
poverty, injustice, or racism. AIDS was seen as a divine judgment for moral
decadence, and only by purging itself from the "pollution" of the "invader"
could society become healthy again.[21]
Authors in the 19th century commonly
used tuberculosis as a symbol and a metaphor for transcendence.
Victims of the disease were portrayed in literature as having risen above daily
life to become ephemeral objects of spiritual or artistic achievement. In the
20th century, the same disease became the emblem of poverty, squalor, and other
social problems.[22]

[edit]
Epidemiology

Main article: Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of the factors that cause or encourage diseases.
Some diseases are more common in certain geographic areas, among people with
certain genetic or socioeconomic characteristics, or at different times of the
year.

Epidemiology is considered a cornerstone methodology of public health
research, and is highly regarded in evidence-based
medicine for identifying risk factors for disease. In
the study of communicable and non-communicable diseases, the work of
epidemiologists ranges from outbreak investigation to study
design, data collection and analysis including the development of statistical
models to test hypotheses and the documentation of results for submission to
peer-reviewed journals. Epidemiologists also study the interaction of diseases
in a population, a condition known as a syndemic. Epidemiologists rely
on a number of other scientific disciplines such as biology (to better understand
disease processes), biostatistics (the current
raw information available), Geographic
Information Science (to store data and map disease patterns) and social science
disciplines (to better understand proximate and distal risk factors).

[edit]
Prevention

Main article: Preventive
medicine

Many diseases and disorders can be prevented through a variety of means.
These include sanitation,
proper nutrition, adequate
exercise, vaccinations, and other self-care and public health
measures.

[edit]
Treatments

Main article: Therapy

Medical therapies or treatments are efforts to cure or improve a disease or
other health problem. In the medical field, therapy is synonymous with the word
"treatment". Among psychologists, the term may refer specifically to psychotherapy or "talk
therapy". Common treatments include medications, surgery, medical devices, and self-care. Treatments may be
provided by an organized health care system,
or informally, by the patient or family members.

A prevention or preventive
therapy is a way to avoid an injury, sickness, or disease in the first
place. A treatment or cure is applied after a medical problem has already
started. A treatment attempts to improve or remove a problem, but treatments may
not produce permanent cures, especially in chronic diseases. Cures are a subset of
treatments that reverse diseases completely or end medical problems permanently.
Many diseases that cannot be completely cured are still treatable.

Treatment for medical emergencies
must be provided promptly, often through an emergency
department or, in less critical situations, through an urgent care facility.

[edit]
See also

List
of acronyms on diseases and disorders

List
of cutaneous conditions

Lists of
diseases

Rare disease

Plant
pathology

[edit]
References

^ eMedicine/Stedman Medical Dictionary Lookup![dead
link]

^ Disease at Dorland's
Medical Dictionary

^ "Mental Illness—Glossary". Science.education.nih.gov. http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih5/mental/other/glossary.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-18.

^ Illness at Dorland's
Medical Dictionary

^
Emson HE (April 1987). "Health, disease and illness: matters for definition".
CMAJ 136 (8): 811–3. PMID 3567788.

^
McWhinney IR (April 1987). "Health and disease: problems of definition". CMAJ
136 (8): 815. PMID 3567791.

^ Hart,
B. L. (1988) "Biological basis of the behavior of sick animals". Neurosci
Biobehav Rev. 12: 123-137. PubMed

^ Johnson, R.
(2002) "The concept of sickness behavior: a brief chronological account of
four key discoveries". Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology. 87: 443-450
PubMed

^ Kelley, K.
W., Bluthe, R. M., Dantzer, R., Zhou, J. H., Shen, W. H., Johnson, R. W.
Broussard, S. R. (2003) "Cytokine-induced sickness behavior". Brain Behav
Immun. 17 Suppl 1: S112-118 PubMed

^ eMedicine/Stedman Medical Dictionary[dead
link]

^ American
Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of
mental disorders, (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American
Psychiatric Association.

^ "Expat Insurance Glossary by The Insurance Page". http://www.theinsurancepage.co.uk/expat-insurance-glossary.html. Retrieved 2008-11-20.

^ Dorland's Medical Dictionary: morbidity, Dorland's
Medical Dictionary, MerckSource

^ Olson, James Stuart (2002). Bathsheba's breast:
women, cancer & history. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press. pp. 168–170. ISBN 0-8018-6936-6.

^ a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
World Health Organization. Disease and injury regional estimates for 2004. Standard
DALYs (3% discounting, age weights). DALY spreadsheet, YLL spreadsheet.

^ Carol Gerten-Jackson. "The Tuscan
General Alessandro del Borro". http://www.cab.u-szeged.hu/cgfa/m/m-12.htm.

^
Haslam DW, James WP (2005). "Obesity".
Lancet 366 (9492): 1197–209. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67483-1. PMID 16198769.

^ Fadiman, Anne (1997). The spirit catches you and you
fall down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two
cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-52564-1.

^ Sulik, Gayle (2010). Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast
Cancer Culture Undermines Women's Health. New York: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0199740453.

^ Martin, Judith (2005). Miss Manners' Guide to
Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
pp. 703. ISBN 0-393-05874-3.

^ a
b
c
d
Gwyn, Richard (1999). "10". In Cameron, Lynne;
Low, Graham. Researching and applying metaphor. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64964-1.

^ a
b
Diedrich, Lisa (2007). Treatments: language,
politics, and the culture of illness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press. pp. 8, 29. ISBN 0-8166-4697-X.

[edit]
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: diseases

Look up disease in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

Health Topics, MedlinePlus descriptions
of most diseases, with access to current research articles.

OMIM Comprehensive information on genes that cause disease at
Online
Mendelian Inheritance in Man

CTD
The Comparative
Toxicogenomics Database is a scientific resource connecting chemicals,
genes, and human diseases.

NLM
Comprehensive database from the US
National Library of Medicine

Health Topics A-Z, fact sheets about many common diseases at
Center for
Disease Control

The Merck
Manual containing detailed description of most diseases

Report: The global burden of disease from World Health
Organization (WHO), 2004

v ·
d ·
eMedicine: Pathology

Principles of pathology

Disease/Medical
condition (Infection,
Neoplasia) · Hemodynamics
(Ischemia) · Inflammation · Wound
healing

Cell
death: Necrosis (Liquefactive
necrosis, Coagulative
necrosis, Caseous
necrosis, Fat
necrosis) · Apoptosis · Pyknosis · Karyorrhexis · Karyolysis

Cellular
adaptation: Atrophy · Hypertrophy · Hyperplasia · Dysplasia · Metaplasia (Squamous,
Glandular)
accumulations:
pigment
(Hemosiderin,
Lipochrome/Lipofuscin, Melanin) · Steatosis

Anatomical
pathology

Surgical
pathology ·
Cytopathology · Autopsy · Molecular
pathology ·
Forensic
pathology ·
Dental
pathology
Gross
examination · Histopathology · Immunohistochemistry · Electron
microscopy · Immunofluorescence · Fluorescent
in situ hybridization

Clinical
pathology

Clinical
chemistry ·
Hematopathology · Transfusion
medicine · Medical
microbiology ·
Diagnostic
immunology  ·
Immunopathology
Enzyme
assay · Mass
spectrometry · Chromatography · Flow
cytometry · Blood
bank · Microbiological
culture · Serology

Specific conditions

Myocardial
infarction

v ·
d ·
ePathology: Medical
conditions and ICD code

(Disease / Disorder / Illness, Syndrome / Sequence,
Symptom / Sign, Injury, etc.)

(A/B,
001–139)

Infectious
disease/Infection: Bacterial
disease (G+,
G-) · Virus
disease · Parasitic
disease (Protozoan
infection, Helminthiasis,
Ectoparasitic
infestation) · Mycosis · Zoonosis

(C/D,
140–239
&
279–289)

Cancer (C00–D48,
140–239)

Tumor

Myeloid hematologic
(D50–D77,
280–289)

Anemia · Coagulopathy

Lymphoid
immune
(D80–D89,
279)

Immunodeficiency · Immunoproliferative
disorder · Hypersensitivity

(E,
240–278)

Endocrine
disease · Nutrition
disorder · Inborn
error of metabolism

(F,
290–319)

Mental
disorder

(G,
320–359)

Nervous
system disease (CNS,
PNS) · Neuromuscular
disease

(H,
360–389)

Eye
disease · Ear
disease

(I,
390–459)

Cardiovascular
disease (Heart disease,
Vascular
disease)

(J,
460–519)

Respiratory
disease (Obstructive
lung disease, Restrictive
lung disease, Pneumonia)

(K,
520–579)

Stomatognathic
disease (Tooth
disease) · Digestive
disease (Esophageal,
Stomach, Enteropathy, Liver, Pancreatic)

(L,
680–709)

Skin
disease · skin
appendages (Nail disease,
Hair
disease, Sweat gland
disease)

(M,
710–739)

Musculoskeletal
disorders: Myopathy · Arthropathy · Osteochondropathy
(Osteopathy, Chondropathy)

(N,
580–629)

Urologic
disease (Nephropathy, Urinary
bladder disease) ·
Male
genital disease · Breast
disease · Female
genital disease

(O,
630–679)

Complications
of pregnancy · Obstetric
labor complication ·
Puerperal
disorder

(P,
760–779)

Fetal
disease

(Q,
740–759)

Congenital
disorder (Congenital
abnormality)

(R,
780–799)

Syndromes · Medical signs
(Eponymous)

(S/T,
800–999)

Bone
fracture · Joint
dislocation · Sprain · Strain · Subluxation · Head
injury · Chest
trauma · Poisoning

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease"

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