Classification of disease

 

It is convenient to classify disease into the following six main groups.

1.       1.Disease caused by other living organisms. Disease-causing organisms typically include viruse, bacteria ,fungi, protozoans, flatworms and  round worms.Thesem organisms live as parasites in or on the human body and the interfere with is normal working. Disease which are caused by bacteria ,virus and fungi are commonly referred to as infectious disease or communicable disease ,such as cholera and measles.Disease caused by other organisms are more commonly referred to as parasitic disease ,such as malariya

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2.        2.      Disease are that are ‘human-induced’ or ‘self –infected’. These disease are brought by human on themselves .either as individuals or collectively as a society. They could also be described as social disease. Many are particularly associated with modern industrialized societies and include coronary heart disease ,alcoholism ,drug abuse ,lung cancer ,domestic and industrial accidents, industrial disease such as asbestosis, and pollution-related disorders. The latter include brain damage brought on by lead or mercury poisoning, some case of asthma and possibly same cases of cancer found in people living near nuclear power  stations.

3.         3.              Deficiency disease. There are related to the absence of certain nutrients in the diet. They may be due to the absence of one of the main food group such as protein which results in kwashiorkor and marasmus. The absence of specific vitamin may result in a number of disease such as pellagra (vitamin B),scurvy (vitamin) or rickets (vitamin D).Deficiency of minerals in the diet may also result in disease ,such as calcium and phosphate deficiency causing rickets or lack of iodine causing thyroid goiter

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4.          4.                            Genetic and congenital disorders. These disorders are raisin increasing concerns in the medical service and society in general. Example of genetic disorders are cystic fibroses ,Huntington’s, disease and Down’s syndrome. Advance in medical science ensure that many children who would in the past have died in infancy from such disorders are surviving and living to adulthood. These means that as a society we must provide means whereby adults with mental or physical handicaps ,often severe , can lead fulfilling lives. On the other side of the coin ,genetic screening can increasingly provide the information before birth whereby babies with genetic disorders can be aborted. This raises many social and ethical issues which provoke controversy in society.

5.           5.   Ageing and degenerative diseases. Degeneration of the body tissues can also cause disease. for example ,weakening of the eye muscles causes long-sightedness in many older people, and disease of the circulatory system, such as arteriosclerosis(hardening of the arteries) result from ageing. Ageing of the joint and bone tissues often leads to arthritis

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            6.      Mental illness mental illness cover a wide verity of disorders. Example are schizophrenia. Senile dementia and depression. certain drugs have been developed that control or reduce various forms of mental illness. The treatment of this illnesses changed dramatically during the twentieth century from lifelong confinement in ‘lunatic asylums’ to ‘care in the community’.

This sex groups described above may also be grouped in to the following categories.

·         Infectious or communicable disease.   Many diseases are passed on from one organism to another, that is they are transmitted and are thus said to be infectious, contagious, communicable or transmissible. many of the diseases in group one above are infection and are transmitted by way of droplets of liquid ,in the air ,food or water , by sexually intercourse or simply by touch. Many are transmitted by way of an intermediate organisms call a victor ,for example malaria by way of the mosquito , or bubonic plague by way of the rat flea.

·         Non infections  disease.    Disease group 2 to 6 above are describe as non-infection or non transmissible. It could be argued that group 4 is a special case of transmission because genetics disorders are transmitted from parents to offspring due to the presence or absence of one or more inherited genes.

     It is clear from the discussion above that there are no rigid boundaries between the disease categories for example, many disease involve a genetics predisposition and therefore an overlap between group 4 above and other categories., such as heart disease (group 2) and some mental illness
(group 6).like health, disease has physical ,mental and  social damnations. some diseases, for example ,are associated with poverty, such as tuberculosis, and may therefore be describe as having an important social dimension.