Terminology

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(Table Last updated 29 October, 2014 at 10:30 PM)

1 Health a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being (not merely the absence of disease) associated with a socially and  economically productive life
2 Epidemiology the branch of medicine that deals with the study of the occurrence and distribution of health-related diseases or events in specified populations
3 Mortality rate number of deaths in an area in a calendar year / population in the area in the same year
4 Morbidity rate number of cases of residents with disease in an area during a calendar year / population in the area during the same year
5 DALY (Disability-adjusted life years) the sum of the years of life lost (YLL) due to premature mortality in the population and the years Lost due to disability (YLD) for people living with the health condition or its consequences
6 Incidence number of new cases of disease occurring over a specified period of time (may be expressed per a known population size)
7 Prevalence number of cases of disease occurring within a population at any one given point in time
8 Sporadic level occasional cases occurring at irregular intervals
9 Endemic a disease present or usually prevalent in a given population or geographic region at all times
10 Hyperendemic equally endemic in all age groups of a population (high level of occurrence)
11 Holoendemic endemic in most of the children in a population, with the adults in the same population being less often affected
12 Epidemic a disease occurring suddenly in numbers clearly in excess of normal expectancy
13 Pandemic a widespread epidemic distributed or occurring widely throughout a region, country, continent, or globally, affecting a large number of people
14 Epizootic related to a rapidly spreading and widely diffused disease affecting large numbers of animals in a given region
15 Panzootic a widespread disease distributed or occurring widely, affecting a large number of animals around the world
16 Zoonotic infection an infection that is transmissible under natural conditions from vertebrate animals to man
17 Acute disease disease in which symptoms develop rapidly and that runs its course quickly
18 Chronic disease disease with usually mild symptoms that develop slowly and last a long time
19 Subacute disease disease with time course and symptoms between acute and chronic
20 Notifiable disease infectious diseases that can become epidemic and, thus has to be reported to health authorities
21 Asymptomatic disease disease without symptoms
22 Latent disease disease that appears a long time after infection
23 Contagious disease communicable disease that is easily spread
24 Local infection infection confined to a small region of the body
25 Systemic infection widespread infection in many systems of the body, often travels in the blood or lymph
26 Focal infection infection that serves as a source of pathogens for infections at other sites in the body
27 Primary infection initial infection within a given patient
28 Secondary infection infection that follows a primary infection, often by opportunistic pathogens
29 Communicable (infectious) diseases a disease caused by specific biological agent or its product 
30 Non-communicable  (non-infectious) diseases a disease that is not primarily caused by microorganisms
31 Source or reservoir the person, animal, arthropod, plant, or  substance from which an infectious agent passes or is disseminated to the host 
32 Primary case/ Index case/ Patient zero the person who comes into and infects a susceptible population
33 Secondary case a patient who subsequently contract the infection from another person
34 Carrier an infected person or animal that harbors a specific infectious agent in the absence of visible clinical disease and serves as a potential source of infection to others
35 Incubatory carrier a person who sheds the microbe during the incubation period 
36 Convalescent carrier a person who sheds the microbe during the convalescent period
37 R0 or Basic reproductive ratio expected number of secondary cases that one primary case can produce in an uninfected population
38 Prevention planning for and taking of action to forestall the onset of a disease or other health problem
39 Intervention taking action during a disease event 
40 Control containment of disease; limiting transmission
41 Eradication total elimination of the disease
42 Pasteurization the process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately
43 Chlorination the most common and oldest method to chemically disinfect water
44 Surveillance a tool used to detect and monitor  epidemics and public health emergencies
45 Isolation the process of separating people with contagious diseases
46 Quarantine the process of separating persons who have been exposed to a communicable disease through contact with a confirmed case
47 Vector any insect or arthropod, rodent or other animal of public health significance capable of harboring or transmitting the causative agents of human disease, or capable of causing human injury
48 Sanitary engineering the application of engineering methods to improve sanitation of human communities 
49 Vaccination a method of prevention by giving antigen to stimulate the immune response through active immunization
50 Herd immunity the indirect protection from infection of susceptible members of a population, and the protection of the population as a whole, due to the presence of immune individuals