Community Medicine Course Outlines

Disease and Health

• Disease refers to the condition of the body or some part or organ of the body in which its functions are disrupted.
• Complete well-being, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, is defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Health as a Dynamic Concept

• Health is referred to as a dynamic concept, emphasizing its continuous change and adaptation.

Types of Diseases

• Congenital disease refers to a condition that a person is born with.
• A person being born with a disease is described as inborn or innate.
• Infectious disease is a type of disease that is communicable or infectious.

Disease Process

• The stage of subclinical disease, extending from the time of exposure to onset of disease symptoms, is usually referred to as the incubation period for infectious diseases.
• Exposure to carcinogens, for example, may initiate the disease process for non-communicable diseases such as cancer.
• The range of illness resulting from the disease process, which may vary from mild to severe or fatal, is referred to as the spectrum of disease.
• The proportion of persons exposed to a causative agent who become infected by an infectious disease is called the attack rate.

Stages of Disease

• The stage of disease characterized by no symptoms is also referred to as the latency period for chronic diseases.
• The process of disease evolving over time from its beginning to its end as recovery, disability, or death in the absence of treatment or prevention is called the natural history of disease.

Intervention and Detection

• Intervention is most effective in the early stages of disease.
• Laboratory, radiographic, or other screening methods may detect signs of disease during the incubation period.
• The stage where the disease process may never progress to clinically apparent illness in some individuals is referred to as the inapparent infection.
• The course a disease takes in individual people from its pathological onset until its eventual resolution through complete recovery or death is defined as the clinical course of disease.