Whois & Analysis for thediseasetracker.com

Infection is the invasion of an organism's body tissues by disease-causing agents, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to these organisms and the toxins they produce.

Infectious disease, also known as transmissible disease or communicable disease, is illness resulting from an infection.

A symptom (from Greek σύμπτωμα, "accident, misfortune, that which befalls", from συμπίπτω, "I befall", from συν- "together, with" and πίπτω, "I fall") is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, reflecting the presence of an unusual state, or of a disease.

A symptom is subjective, observed by the patient, and cannot be measured directly, whereas a sign is objectively observable by others.

For example, paresthesia is a symptom (only the person experiencing it can directly observe their own tingling feeling), whereas erythema is a sign (anyone can confirm that the skin is redder than usual).

Symptoms and signs are often nonspecific, but often combinations of them are at least suggestive of certain diagnoses, helping to narrow down what may be wrong.

In other cases they are specific even to the point of being pathognomonic.

Prevalence in epidemiology is the proportion of disease found to have been affecting a particular population (typically a disease or a risk factor such as smoking or seat-belt use).

It is arrived at by comparing the number of people found to have the condition with the total number of people studied, and is usually expressed as a fraction, as a percentage or as the number of cases per 10,000 or 100,000 people.

Point prevalence is the proportion of a population that has the condition at a specific point in time.

Period prevalence is the proportion of a population that has the condition at some time during a given period (e.g., 12 month prevalence), and includes people who already have the condition at the start of the study period as well as those who acquire it during that period.

Lifetime prevalence (LTP) is the proportion of a population that at some point in their life (up to the time of assessment) have experienced the condition.

A medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a patient or anyone, especially a physician, before or during a physical examination of a patient.

For example, whereas a tingling paresthesia is a symptom (only the person experiencing it can directly observe their own tingling feeling), erythema is a sign (anyone can confirm that the skin is redder than usual).

Symptoms and signs are often nonspecific, but often combinations of them are at least suggestive of certain diagnoses, helping to narrow down what may be wrong.

In other cases they are specific even to the point of being pathognomonic.

The history of medicine, as practiced by trained professionals, shows how societies have changed in their approach to illness and disease from ancient times to the present.