Chapter-13

Why Do We Fall Ill

Anything that prevents proper functioning of cells and tissues will lead to a proper lack of
proper activity of the body. When a person experiences such a condition, he is said to be ‘ill’
or ‘in poor health’.
What is health?
•A state of ‘being well’
•A state of being well enough to function well physically, mentally and socially.
Which are the factors important for staying in good health?
•Physical Environment
•Social Environment
•Cleanliness (Personal Hygiene and Public Cleanliness)
•Good Food
•Good economic conditions
•Social Equality and harmony (an example of how community issues effect individual health)
•To have the opportunity to realise the unique potential in all of us
Disease= Dis Ease=Disturbed Ease and there is a specific cause for this discomfort.
Disease is any harmful change that interferes with the normal appearance, structure, or function of
the body or any of its parts.

Conditions essential for being free of a disease

•There should be no discomfort to the individual.
•There should be no specific and particular cause for a discomfort
Difference between being ‘healthy’ and ‘disease free’
•It is possible to be in poor health without actually suffering from a disease
•When we think about health, we think about societies and communities
•When we think about disease, we think about individual sufferers

To identify a disease, we look for signs and symptoms.

Symptoms are
•Unfavorable change in the functioning or appearance of one or more systems of the body.
•Signs – things we feel as being “wrong”.
•Symptoms give an indication of the disease.
Example: Headache, cough, fever, loose motions, pus in the wound etc are symptoms
Laboratory tests are done to confirm the presence and type of disease.
Types of Diseases (based on Duration)

Acute Diseases Eg. Common Cold Chronic Diseases Eg. Elephantiasis

● An Acute disease does not cause major
effects on general health
● An acute disease may affect a person for
a few days or weeks
● An acute disease will not cause drastic
long term affects on the health of a
person.
● A Chronic disease will cause major effects
on general health(Loss of weight, feeling
tired all the time, being short of breath)
● A chronic disease may affect a person for
years
● A Chronic disease will cause drastic long
term affects on the health of a person.
(Prolonged general poor health)

Causes of Diseases
(These are just examples and are not to be generalized for every disease.)

Immediate Causes Contributory Causes

● Infection by Microorganisms ● Lack of nourishment
(Pathogens=Disease causing organisms) ● Economic Status of the Household
● Genetic Factors

First Level Cause Second Level Cause Third Level Cause

Infection by Microorganisms Lack of Good nourishment Poverty and lack of public
services

Infectious causes Non infectious Causes

are usually external causes are usually internal causes
Eg. Infectious agents like microbes Eg. Some cancers are caused by genetic abnormalities

Microbes can spread in the community and infect Cannot infect others
others

Lead to Infectious Diseases Lead to Non-Infectious Diseases

Control of the disease depends on

•the type of Disease
•the immediate causes
•are they infectious or non infectious
Infectious diseases are caused by Infectious Agents i.e. the microorganisms.
 Name of the Disease
Common Cold, Influenza,
Dengue, AIDS
Typhoid fever, Anthrax,
Tuberculosis, Cholera
Common Skin Infections like
Ringworm
Malaria, Kala-azar
Caused by (Infectious Agents) Special Biological
Characteristics
VIRUSES Live inside host cells
Multiply very quickly
BACTERIA Live inside host cells
Multiply very quickly
FUNGI Live inside host cells
Multiply very quickly
Protozoans Multiply very quickly

Some intestinal Infections, DIFFERENT SPECIES OF WORMS Multiply slowly

Elephantiasis

Other Examples:
 Staphylococci, a bacteria causes acne on skin
 Trypanosoma, a protozoan causes Sleeping Sickness.
 Leishmania, a protozoan causes Kala-azar.
Controlling the Infectious Agents:
•Closely related groups have similar life processes.
•Therefore , drugs that block one of these life processes in one member of the group is likely to be
effective against other members of the group.
•However , the same drug may not work against a microbe belonging to a different group.
What are Antibiotics?
Antibiotics (Greek anti, “against”; bios, “life”) are chemical compounds used to kill or inhibit
the growth of infectious organisms.
•Commonly block biochemical pathways important for the growth of bacteria.
•Example- An antibiotic – Penicillin blocks the bacterial processes that build cell wall. If human beings
take Penicillin, it will not effect humans as human cells do not have cell walls.
•therefore antibiotics will control a number of bacterial infections.
•Antibiotics do not work against viral infections as viruses do not have the same biochemical
processes as bacteria.
•That is why an antibiotic does not control viral infections like common cold.
Spread of Infectious Diseases/How they can be communicated?
Since the infectious agents(microbes can move from an affected person to a healthy person,
therefore these diseases are also called Communicable Diseases.
 Medium for spread of the Process of spread of the Names of Diseases that can
disease disease be spread this way

Air When an infected person Common Cold, Pneumonia,

(Airborne Diseases)
Water
(Waterborne Diseases)
sneezes or coughs, little Tuberculosis.
droplets are thrown out by
him.
When the excreta from someone Cholera
suffering from an infectious disease of
digestive system, such as Cholera gets
mixed with drinking water, and this
water is used by a healthy person.

Sexual Act Sexually transmitted Disease AIDS, Syphilis

(Sexually Transmitted Not spread by casual physical
Diseases) contact like handshakes, hugs
etc.

Animals These animals are called Malaria, Rabies

VECTORS or INTERMEDIARIES
(Eg. Mosquitoes and dogs)
Carry infecting agent from a sick
person to a potential host.

How does the AIDS virus spread from a healthy person to a diseased person?
1.Sexual Contact, 2. Blood to Blood contact with infected people, 3. Infected mother to her baby during
pregnancy, 4. Infected mother to her baby through breast feeding.
Why do the female mosquitoes of a species, suck blood from warm blooded animals like human
beings?
Because the female mosquitoes need highly nutritious food in the form of blood, in order to lay mature eggs.

Manifestation of the Disease(In what ways does the disease affects a person)
How does the Organ/ tissue likely to Symptoms of the Disease Examples of Diseases
microbe enter the be targeted by the
body microorganism

Through air via Lungs Sneezing , coughing Tuberculosis

nose

Through Mouth Gut Lining or Liver Diarrhea etc. Typhoid,Jaundice

By Mosquitoes Liver, Red Blood Cells Shivering, fever, Jaundice Malaria

By Mosquitoes Brain Headache, fever, Japanese Encephalitis

vomiting, fits,
unconsciousness
The above table shows some specific effects.
There are COMMON EFFECTS too.
The body’s immune system is activated in response to an infection. An active immune system will send to the
affected tissue to kill the pathogens. This causes inflammation.
Local effects of inflammation=swelling and pain
General Effects of inflammation=fever

Limitations to Principles of treatment for infectious diseases: 1) The body functions may be
damaged due to the disease and the patient may never recover completely. 2) Treatment takes time
and may cast a lot of money. 3) the infection may spread to other people.
THAT IS WHY PREVENTION OF DISEASES IS BETTER THAN THEIR CURE

Principles of Prevention
Two types of methods: a) General Methods
b) Methods Specific to a disease

General Methods of prevention: Prevent exposure and availability of proper and

sufficient food to build a strong immune system.
How to prevent exposure:
Type of Disease/Microbe How to prevent exposure

Air Borne By providing living conditions that are not overcrowded.

Water Borne By providing safe drinking water, treating water to kill microbial
contamination
Vector Borne Clean environment that does not allows mosquitoes to breed-
Public Hygiene
Specific Methods of prevention-are disease specific
Immunization ie Vaccination by which we can fool the immune system into developing
antibodies against a disease. By this method the body builds up ‘strength’ to fight against a
disease.

Questions:
1) Why is it difficult to make antiviral medicines?
2) What is HIV-AIDS? How does this disease spread from one person to another? List the symptoms
of this
disease. What are its general effects? How does a person suffering from AIDS die?
3) How was small pox eradicated?
4) Why are children living in many parts of India usually immune to Hepatitis –A?
5) Name five disease against which vaccines are available.
6) Comment on the following statement: ‘ Having a disease means preventing subsequent attacks of
the same”

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