B2 Health and Disease (page 36) Flashcards
What are the Major Cause of ill heath?
Diseases
Health is the state of physical and mental wellbeing. Diseases are often responsible for causing ill health.
Can Diseases be Communicable, Non-communicable or both?
both.
What is meant by Communicalble diseases?
(you need to understand the difference between communicable and non-communicable disease as it could come up in your exam)
those that can spread from person to person or between animals and people.
What can communicable diseases be caused by?
They can be caused by things like bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. They’re sometimes described as contagious or infectious diseases.
Give an example of a communicable disease?
Measles and Malaria. (see page 43-45 about more of them).
What is mean by No-communicable diseases?
They can not spread between people or between animals and people. They generally last a long time and get worse slowly.
Give an example of a Non-communicable disease?
Asthma, cancer and coronary heart disease (see page 34)
These are examples of non-communicable disease.
Sometimes diseases can interact with other health issues, what do this mean?
they can cause other physical and mental health issues that don’t immediately seem related.
People who have problems with their immune system (the system that your body uses to help fight off infection) have an increased chance from communicable diseases such as influenza (flu), why?
unfortunately their body is less likely to be able to defend itself against the pathogen that causes the disease.
(pathogen means a bacterium, virus or other microrganism that can cause disease)
Some types of cancer can be triggered by infection by certain viruses, give example?
some types of cancer can be triggered by infection by certain viruses.
for example; some infection with some types of hepatitis virus can cause long-term infections in the liver, where the virus lives in the cells. This can lead to an increased chance of developing liver cancer.
(Hepatisis C is a virus that affects your liver. It can be very serious if it’s not treated)
Another example is infection with HPV (human papilloma virus), which can cause cervical cancer in women.
(HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection (STI) it can cause genital warts and cancers, you can get this by having vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who has the virus, also through close skin to skin touching during sex).
Immune system reactions in the body caused by infection by a pathogen can sometimes trigger off what?
can sometimes trigger allergic reactions such as skin rashes or worsen the symptoms of asthma for asthma sufferers.
Mental Health issues such as depression can be triggered when someone if suffering from what?
severe physical health problems, particularly if they have impact on the person’s ability to carry out everyday activities or if they effect the person’s life expectancy.
Other factors can also affect your health, give examples?
1) a poor diet can affect your physical and mental health.
2) The stress you are under - being constantly under lots of stress can lead to health issues.
3) Your life situation - for example whether you have easy access to medicines to treat illness, or whether you have access to things that prevent you from getting ill in the first place, e.g. being able to buy healthy food or access condoms to prevent transmission of some sexually transmitted diseases.
What is meant by ‘health’? (1 mark)
The state of physical and mental wellbeing (1 mark)
Why is influenza classed as a communicable disease? (1 mark)
It can be spread from person to person (1 mark)
