Chapter 4: Communicable & Non-communicable Disease

Chapter 4: Communicable & Non-communicable Disease

In medical studies, they are 2 types of diseases, communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Communicable diseases: an infectious disease transmissible (as from person to person) by direct contact with an affected individual or the individual's discharges or by indirect means.

                         (source from https://www26.state.nj.us/doh-shad/indicator/CatInfec.html)

Non-communicable diseases: medical condition or disease that is non-infectious or non-transmissible. NCDs can refer to chronic diseases which last for long periods of time and progress slowly.

                                     (source from http://healthbizinforma.com)

Level of Diseases:

Endemic – (of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.

Epidemic or Outbreak – a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Pandemic – (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.

Types of communicable diseases in Malaysia:

-         HIV

-         Malaria

-         Tuberculosis (TB)

-         Leprosy  

-         Cholera

Mode of transmission:

There are 2 way in that the agent is transferred to a new host, which are:

Direct: Direct contact

Indirect: Vehicle and Vector borne

Direct contact- microorganisms directly from one individual to another by one or more.

Example of direct contact are:

-Trans placental transmission is relating to, involving, or being passage (as of an antibody) between mother and fetus through the placenta

-Person to person: from touching, biting, kissing, sexual intercourse or direct projection of respiratory droplets into another person’s nose 

or mouth during coughing, sneezing or talking.

Example of indirect contact:

-Vehicles: inanimate or non-living means of transmission of infectious organisms such as handkerchiefs, soiled clothes and doorknobs.

-Vectors : animate or living vehicles which transmit infections that are usually an arthropod, which transmits an infectious agent to a new host such as houseflies, mosquitoes, lice and ticks.

Types of non-communicable diseases in Malaysia:

(source from https://mytropicanaslim.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/top-chronic-diseases-and-killer-in-malaysia-part-1/)

Finally, I’ll go through on level of preventive medicine:

                             ( source from my lecturer's note, Mohd Jamalil Azam bin Mustafa)


  All this point's are not mine, it is based from the reference that I found. Please refer the link/ books/ journal :

http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/communicable%20disease
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-communicable_disease
www.dictionary.com/browse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_(medicine)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transplacental

•R. Bonita, R. Beaglehole, T. Kjellström. (2006). Basic Epidemiology. World Health Organization 3rd edition.
•Roger Webber (2005). Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Control. A Global Perspective. 2nd Edition
•World Health Organization (WHO) Website.