Disease and Treatment


Disease is the name given to any condition that prevents an organism from functioning effectively. For example, diseases include influenza, short-sightedness, asthma and cancer.

Types of Disease

Diseases are classified as Hereditary or Congenital Diseases (an organism has these at birth) and Acquired Diseases (an organism has these only after birth).

  1. Infectious Diseases - caused by a living organism (e.g. virus, bacteria, fungus, protozoan, worm)
  2. Diet and Deficiency Diseases - caused by too much or too little of certain nutrients in our food ( e.g. scurvy, rickets)
  3. Cancers - caused by rapid and uncontrolled growth of cells into tumours (e.g. lung cancer, skin cancer or melanoma)
  4. Occupational Diseases - acquired during incidents in the working environment (e.g. pesticide poisoning on a farm)
  5. Heart Diseases - caused by a malfunctioning of the heart and blood vessels, due to smoking, stress and poor diet (e.g. angina)

Infectious or Contagious Disease

  1. coccus (round)
  2. bacillus (rod-shaped)
  3. spirillus (spiral)

Fighting Infectious Diseases

  1. Immunisation may be active (the body fights infection by producing its own antibodies), or passive (the antibodies are either injected or fed in breast milk). A person who has been exposed to a disease may build up his/her own antibodies to fight that same disease the next time they come in contact with it.
  2. Immunisation by injecting or orally giving the dead or altered micro-organism may be done for short- or long-term prevention of the disease.
  3. Pregnant or breast-feeding mothers may give antibodies to the baby through blood or milk.