Page 169 - Health, Population and Environment Education 10

Activity

• Visit in your locality and prepare a list of communicable and non-communicable
diseases from which the local people are suffering.
• Suggest preventive and control measures of those diseases to the local people.
• Prepare a project work on non-communicable diseases in Nepal.

Summary

1. A disease is an illness affecting humans, animals or plants, often caused by infection.
2. The word disease is made up of two words, viz. ‘dis’ and ‘ease’ which simply
means lack of easiness or lack of comfort.
3. Those diseases which transmit from infected person to another are called
communicable diseases.
4. Communicable diseases are mainly caused due to infection of micro organisms.
5. The diseases which do not transmit from one person to another are called non-
communicable diseases.
6. Non-communicable diseases mainly occur due to malfunction of body parts,
unhealthy lifestyle, mental stress, lack of physical exercise, smoking, drinking
alcohol, etc.
7. When the immune system of the body connot fight against disease causing germs,
symptoms of the disease are seen and the person becomes the source of infection.
8. The diseases which are transmitted through air are called air-borne diseases.
9. The diseases which are transmitted through contaminated food and water are
called food and water-bone disease.
10. Cancer is a non-communicable disease. It is a group of diseases involving abnormal
cell growth with the potential to spread or invade to other parts of the body.
11. Heart attack and brain stroke are the life-threatening conditions. Heart attack
mainly occurs due to blockage of the coronary artery.
12. Heart attack is a life-threatening disease. It is a serious medical emergency which
occurs due to sudden stop in the supply of blood to the heart.
13. Brain stroke can be defined as the sudden death of brain cells due to poor supply of
blood.
14. Rheumatic fever is a disease associated with strep throat.
15. Children between the ages of 5 and 15 usually suffer from rheumatic fever, however,
it may attack older children and adults, too.
16. Diabetes mellitus, commonly referred as diabetes, is a group of metabolic disorder
in which there is high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period.
17. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disorder which occurs due to
the obstruction of bronchi and bronchioles. It causes difficulty in breathing and
continuous coughing.
18. Cholera is an infection of small intestine. It is caused by some strains of bacterium
Vibrio cholerae.

GREEN Health, Population and Environment Education Book-10 169