Noncommunicable Diseases-A Misnomer in Medical Terminology

The Noncommunicable diseases have proven to be a challenging category to categorise. The term “Noncommunicable diseases” includes some diseases — most notably cancers of the liver, stomach, and cervix — that are at least partly caused by infectious organisms. It could be argued that the term “non-communicable diseases” (NCDs) is a bit of a misnomer because it includes a number of conditions that are caused by infectious agents. Malignancies such as cervical, anal, genital, and oral can be caused by human papillomavirus, while H. pylori bacteria are responsible for some cases of stomach cancer. Human papillomavirus is also a cause of many cancers. In point of fact, it is believed that infections are responsible for as many as one out of every five cases of cancer. In the social realm, NCDs risks are also shared; eating, drinking, and smoking behaviours are strongly impacted by one’s network of friends and acquaintances Furthermore, the term “noncommunicable diseases” typically excludes mental illnesses, despite the fact that mental illnesses have a significant impact on the amount of time spent in long-term disability. Tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet, and a lack of physical activity are the four common behavioural risk factors that are associated with four disease clusters (cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic pulmonary diseases, and diabetes) that are responsible for approximately 80 percent of deaths caused by noncommunicable diseases. Despite the fact that many NCDs are, in fact, communicable, the current anti-definition does not provide any information on what elements unify these diseases. Politicians and the general public have a hard time getting a grasp on the main challenges posed by NCDs because of the widespread belief that personal traits, rather than environmental or societal influences, play the biggest role in determining health outcomes. All noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are not clearly distinguished from traditional infectious diseases and have no common characteristics. We can think of the current list of NCDs as a mishmash of things that don’t quite fit somewhere else, either because they don’t adhere to Koch’s postulates or because they don’t belong in any other category. Congenital disorders (such as Down syndrome and neural tube defects), degenerative disorders (such as prostatic hypertrophy, cataracts, and hearing loss), musculoskeletal disorders (such as back pain, arthritis, and gout), genitourinary disorders (such as infertility and kidney stones), mental health disorders (such as depression and schizophrenia), and the “big four” (cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and type 2 diabetes) all qualify as NCDs. When it comes to preventing and treating noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), attention must shift dramatically to the underlying economic and social inequalities that contribute to them. People’s health is profoundly influenced by structural, social, and economic issues, all of which require concerted effort to improve.  

References

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