Difference between communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases

	Communicable disease	Non-communicable
1.	Are transferable	Are not transferable
2.	Are often referred to as acute disease	Are often referred to as chronic disease
3.	Some are immunization	Are not immunization
4.	Are caused by causative agents e.g. protozoa, bacteria, virus, fungi and others such as rickettesia etc.	Are cause by certain risk factors such as life style, diet lack of exercise, hereditary etc.
5.	Are also referred to as infectious diseases	Are also referred to as non-infectious disease
6.	Example are chicken pox, measles, typhoid cholera, tuberculosis, malaria whooping cough. Etc	Examples are hypertension, asthma, cancer, diabetes.
7.	Can occur in epidemic	Cannot occur in epidemic
8.	Can be imported	Cannot be imported

Epidemiological terminology of communicable
diseases

There are several
terminologies for the investigation and description patterns of communicable
diseases, viz:

·
Epidemiology: is the study of the
occurrence, distribution and control of infectious and non-infectious diseases
in a well defined population.

·
Disease:- a deviation from the normal
status of health that hinders the performances of vital functions.

·
Epidemic:– a sudden outbreak of
infectious disease above the expected level e.g. cholera, measles etc.

·
Endemic:– refer to the constant
presence of disease within a particular population in continuously low level
e.g. leprosy, malaria etc.

·
Pandemic:– sudden outbreak of
disease within a short time or within the same time in different countries eg.
Bird flu, HIV/AIDS etc.

·
Hyperendemic diseases: is the gradual increase in
the occurrence of disease beyond the endemic level but not up to the epidemic
level.

·
Panzo ofic: is the increase in occurrence of animal
disease in a wide spread distribution.

·
Disinfection:– is the use of
disinfectants (chemicals) in correct strength and sufficient to kill an
organism in secretion and discharges in order to render them harmless there are
two types of disinfection. Viz,

·
Concurrent Disinfection:- it refers to as treatment
or disinfecting of secretions, discharge, articles and formites that came into
contact with patient during sickness. It is carried out at regular interval
before recovery.

·
Terminal disinfection:- is the disinfection carried
out on articles and formites after recovery from sickness. That is, final
disinfection of everything that came into contact with patient during the
period of sickness.

·
Health carrier:- is also called
asymptomatic carrier. Is a person that has contracted infectious disease but
shows no signs and symptoms.

·
Incubatory:- a person capable of
transmitting infectious agent to other during the incubation period of the
disease

·
Convalescent carrier:- A person who has recovered
from symptoms of a infectious diseases but is still capable of transmitting
pathogens to others.

·
Quarantine:- is the period of observation
whereby a persons/animals who have had contact with infected case are isolated
to restrict their movement within the incubation period of the disease.

·
Sporadic:- is the occurrence of
disease at occasional or irregular interval with cases being so few and
scattered in space and time e.g poliomyelitis etc

·
Index case:- is the first case of a
epidemic.

·
Outbreak:- is the sudden occurrence of
disease.

·
Incidence:- Is the occurrence of new cases of disease arising in
a population over a period of time.

·
Prevalence:- is the occurrence of both
old and new cases of disease in a population

·
Isolation:- is the separation of a
person with an infectious disease from non-infectious people for the period of
incubation of the disease

·
Host:- refers to human and all
other living species that harbors infectious agent.

·
Infection:– invasion of the body by
harmful organisms (pathogens) such as bacteria, fungi viruses e.tc.

·
Zoonosis:– an infectious disease of
animals that transmitted to human e.g anthrax, rabies typus e.t.c

·
Signs:– are visible changes in
the body such as rashes, body temperature etc

·
Symptoms:- are subjective changes felt
by the patient such as pain, loss of appetite.

·
Incubation period:– the interval between
exposure to an infection and the appearance of the first signs and symptoms of
the disease.

·
Susceptible host:– a person who lack
resistance to disease and capable of contacting a disease.

·
Carrier:– a person who harbors
specific infectious agent without manifesting the signs and symptom. Carrier
includes;

·
Reservoir of infection:– any person, animal or
substance in which agent lives and multiple.

Epizootic:-
is the occurrence of diseases transmitted from animals above then expected level

Enzootic:- disease which occurs all
the time in animals

Contact refers to somebody who has been in
contact with a patient suffering from communicable disease.

The following steps are necessary to identify
and investigate the epidemic of disease.

1. Incubation period: is the period in which the
disease pathogen enters the body until the outbreak of the signs and symptoms
of the disease. During this period there is usually loss of appetite, drosiness
by day and restlessness by night.

2. Prodomal period: is the time interval
between the onset of the characteristics features (signs) e.g rashes

3. Invasion period: is the period of full
manifestation of signs and symptoms of the disease this phase is called
eruption phase.

4. Decline period:– in this period signs and
symptoms begins to disappear. The normal state of health is regained. After an
infection disease has been recognized in a population, correlate the disease
outbreak with a specific organism through laboratory investigation. It’s
purpose is to isolate the organism that caused the disease and determine the
pathogens susceptibility to control agents or methods that may assist in it’s
eradication.