Communicable diseases are those caused by an infectious agent. For example, the SARS-CoV-2 virus causes Covid disease. This disease can be passed from person to person.
Non-Communicable diseases/disorders are those conditions in which the underlying cause is not an infectious agent. For example, breast cancer is a leading cause of death in the US, but it is not caused by an infectious agent. Accidents and Intentional self-harm are considered to be disorders (although it is possible that a psychiatric illness might induce self-harming behavior). These diseases/disorders are not communicable from person to person as infectious diseases are.
Number of deaths for leading causes of death (2019):
• Heart disease: 659,041
• Cancer: 599,601
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 173,040
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 156,979
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 150,005
• Alzheimer’s disease: 121,499
• Diabetes: 87,647
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 51,565
• Influenza and Pneumonia: 49,783
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,511
Source: Mortality in the United States, 2019, data table for figure 2
• Total number of deaths: 2,854,838
• Death rate: 869.7 deaths per 100,000 population
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2019) via CDC WONDER
You may select COVID disease as a cause of death due to an infectious agent because preliminary data from 2020 and 2021 indicates that it is a leading cause of death in the US.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-is-on-track-to-become-the-u-s-s-leading-cause-of-death-yet-again1/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2774465
For example, you could choose breast cancer (noncommunicable disease) and influenza (communicable disease).
PROJECT 1 AND 2.
This is a two-part assignment, in Part I you will select two diseases/disorders one that is communicable (caused by an infectious agent) and one non-communicable which are within the categories of the top causes of death in the US as of 2019. The current data has not yet been updated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to reflect the COVID emergency. You will select and analyze the resources of a communicable disease (caused by an infectious agent) and a noncommunicable disease/disorder (not caused by an infectious agent).
(a) Signs and symptoms of the disease.
(b) Explain the effects of the disease on healthy body structure and function, and how these effects relate to signs and symptoms.
(c) Discuss the tools or diagnostic tests that are used to make the diagnosis. Explain, in general terms, how each tool or test works and how the data from the tool or test conveys the relevant information to the clinician about the body function or structure that is impacted by the disease.
(d) For your Summary, discuss the following ideas:
- What differences and similarities exist between communicable and non-communicable diseases/disorders based on your choices?
- Risk factors
• What are the risk factors for each of the diseases?
• Are any of the risk factors in common?
• Are any risk factors controllable? Why and how? - How are the diagnostic tools or tests similar or different for the two diseases?
- Discuss at least one promising treatment or cure for each of the diseases you selected.
- Are there societal conditions that predispose these diseases to certain groups (think of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, age)? If a societal change is the cure (such as decreasing social injustice or less reliance on fossil fuels that pollute the environment), discuss any progress toward societal change.