Chapter-13

Why Do We Fall Ill

Anything that prevents proper functioning of cells and tissues will lead to a 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=DisEase=Disturbed Easeand 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 andparticular 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
A Chronic disease will cause major effects on
general
health(Loss of weight, feeling tired all the time,
being short of breath)
An acute disease may affect a person for a
few days or weeks
A chronic diseasemay affect a

Causes of Diseases (These are just examples and are not to be generalized for every
disease.)
Immediate Causes
Contributory Causes
 Infection by
Microorganisms
(Pathogens=Disease causing
organisms)
 Lack of nourishment
 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 external causes
•
Eg. Infectious agents like
microbes
• are internal causes
•
Eg. Some cancers are caused by genetic
abnormalities
• Microbes can spread in the
community and infect others
• Cannot infect 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
Caused by
(Infectious Agents)
Special Biological
Characteristics
Common Cold, Influenza, Dengue, AIDS
VIRUSES
Live inside host cells
Multiply very quickly
Typhoid fever, Anthrax, Tuberculosis,
Cholera
BACTERIA
Live inside host cells
Multiply very quickly
Common Skin Infections like Ringworm
FUNGI
Live inside host cells
Multiply very quickly
Malaria, Kala-azar
Protozoans
Multiply very quickly
Some intestinal Infections, Elephantiasis
DIFFERENT
SPECIES OF
WORMS
Multiply slowly
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. Ifhuman beings take
Penicillin, it will not effect humans as human cells do not have cellwalls.
•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 disease
Process of spread of the disease
Names of Diseases
that can be spread
this way
Air
(Airborne
Diseases)
•
When an infected person sneezes or
coughs, little droplets are thrown
out by him.
Common Cold,
Pneumonia,
Tuberculosis.
Water
(Waterborne
Diseases)
•
When the excreta from someone suffering from
an infectious disease of digestive system, suchas Cholera gets mixed with drinking water, andthis water is
used by a healthy person.
Cholera
Sexual Act
(Sexually
Transmitted
Diseases)
•
Sexually transmitted Disease
•
Not spread by casual physical contact
like handshakes, hugs etc.
AIDS, Syphilis
Animals
(Eg. Mosquitoes
and dogs)
•
These animals are called VECTORS or
INTERMEDIARIES
•
Carry infecting agent from a sick
person to a potential host.
Malaria, Rabies
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 doesthe disease affects a person

nose
Through Mouth
Gut Lining or Liver
Diarrhea etc.
Typhoid,Jaundice
By Mosquitoes
Liver, Red Blood CellsShivering, fever,
Jaundice
Malaria
By Mosquitoes
Brain
Headache, fever,
vomiting, fits,
unconsciousness
Japanese
Encephalitis
The above table shows some specific effects.
There are COMMON EFFECTS too.
The body’s immune system is activatedin 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
Severity of the Diseasedepends on no. of microbes in the body
depends onthe immune
system
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) MethodsSp ecific 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/MicrobeHow to prevent exposure
AirBorne
By providing living conditions that are not overcrowded.
WaterBorne
By providing safe drinking water, treating water to kill
microbial contamination
Vector Borne
Clean environment that does not allows mosquitoes to
breed-Public Hygiene
4
Principle
s
of
Treatme
Symptom Directed
Treatment
ie to reduce the effects of the
disease.
Medicines to bring down
fever, to reduce pain and forloose motions. Bed rest toc

Specific Methods of prevention-are disease specific

Immunisation 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”