Health and Disease

• Health is the state of physical and mental wellbeing.
• Communicable diseases are those that can be spread from person to person or between animals and people
• Communicable diseases can be causes by things like bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. Measles and malaria are examples of communicable diseases.
• Non-communicable diseases generally last for a long time and get worse slowly. Asthma, cancer and coronary heart diseases are examples of non-communicable diseases.
• Sometimes diseases can interact and cause other physical and mental issues that don't immediately seem related. An example would be where people who have problems with their immune system (the system that your body uses to help fight off infection) have an increased chance of suffering from communicable diseases such as influenza (flu), because their body is less likely to be able to defend itself against the pathogen that causes the disease.
• Some types of cancer can be triggered by infection by certain viruses. For example, 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. Another example is infection with HPV (human papilloma virus), which can cause cervical cancer in women.
• Immune system reactions in the body caused by infection by a pathogen 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 is suffering from severe physical health problems, particularly, if they have an impact on the person's ability to carry out everyday activities or if they affect the person's life expectancy.
• There are plenty of factors other than disease that can affect your health. For example: Whether or not you have a good, balanced diet that provides your body with everything it needs, and in the right amounts. A poor diet can affect your physical and mental health.
• Your life situation (for example, whether you have an easy access to medicines to treat illness, or whether you have access to things that can prevent you from getting ill in the first place) and the stress you are under can lead to health issues.
• Not being able to buy healthy food or having access to condoms can affect your health. E.g. condoms prevent the transmission of some sexually transmitted diseases.