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Superglossary - Health Category: Health and Medicine > Disease Date & country: 18/12/2013, USA Words: 309

Absorption
The process of taking in. For a person or an animal, absorption is the process of a substance gettin

Acute
Occurring over a short time [compare with chronic].

Acute Disease
An acute disease is a disease with either a rapid onset or a short duration, or both. Acute is NOT s

Acute Exposure
Contact with a substance that occurs once or for only a short time (up to 14 days) [compare with int

Addisons Disease
A disease characterized by severe weakness, low blood pressure, and a bronzed coloration of the skin

Additive Effect
A biologic response to exposure to multiple substances that equals the sum of responses of all the i

Adverse Health Effect
A change in body function or cell structure that might lead to disease or health problems

Ague
Malarial or intermittent fever characterized by paroxysms (stages of chills, fever, and sweating at

Ague-Cake
A form of enlargement of the spleen, resulting from the action of malaria on the system.

Amplification
Adding a species to a community increases the total abundance of hosts for a pathogen, increasing th

Analyte
A substance measured in the laboratory. A chemical for which a sample (such as water, air, or blood)

Analytic Epidemiologic Study
A study that evaluates the association between exposure to hazardous substances and disease by testi

Antagonistic Effect
A biologic response to exposure to multiple substances that is less than would be expected if the kn

Antibiotic
A chemical substance that kills or suppresses the growth of microorganisms. Antibiotics are designe

Antibiotic Resistance
The ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic.

Antibody
Proteins that are found in blood of vertebrates, and are used by the immune system to identify and n

Antigen
A molecule that can stimulate an immune response.

Antigen Drift
The random accumulation of mutations in viral genes recognized by the immune system. Such accumulat

Antiviral
A chemical substance that kills or suppresses the growth of viruses. Antivirals are designed to be t

Asymptomatic
Individuals who are infected by a disease but do not show any of the typical symptoms.

Attenuated
Reducing the virulence of an organism, usually a virus, whilst keeping it viable.

Background Level
An average or expected amount of a substance or radioactive material in a specific environment, or t

BCG
Bacille Calmette-Gu

Beta-Lactam Antibiotics
A broad class of antibiotics which include penicillin and its derivatives. They are the most widely

Bilious Fever
A term loosely applied to certain intestinal and malarial fevers. See typhus.

Biliousness
A complex of symptoms comprising nausea, abdominal discomfort, headache, and constipation--formerly

Biodegradation
Decomposition or breakdown of a substance through the action of microorganisms (such as bacteria or

Biologic Monitoring
Measuring hazardous substances in biologic materials (such as blood, hair, urine, or breath) to dete

Biologic Uptake
The transfer of substances from the environment to plants, animals, and humans.

Biomedical Testing
Testing of persons to find out whether a change in a body function might have occurred because of ex

Biota
Plants and animals in an environment. Some of these plants and animals might be sources of food, clo

Black Death
(1347-1351) One of the most deadly pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by

Body Burden
The total amount of a substance in the body. Some substances build up in the body because they are s

Boil
An abscess of skin or painful inflammation of the skin or a hair follicle usually caused by a staphy

Bolivian Hemorrhagic Fever
A zoonotic infectious disease of man caused by a virus and transmitted to man via rodents.

Borrelia Burgdorferi
The bacterial causative agent of Lyme disease.

Broad Street Outbreak
(1854) The London Cholera outbreak investigated by John Snow that was the first epidemiological inv

Bronchial Asthma
A disorder of breathing, characterized by spasm of the bronchial tubes of the lungs, wheezing, and d

Buboe
Infected lymph nodes associated with the bubonic plague.

Bubonic Plague
A zoonotic disease vectored by fleas. Rodents form the reservoir species.

Cancer
A malignant and invasive growth or tumor. In the nineteenth century, cancerous tumors tended to ulce

Cancer Risk
A theoretical risk for getting cancer if exposed to a substance every day for 70 years (a lifetime e

Cancrum Otis
A severe, destructive, eroding ulcer of the cheek and lip. In the last century it was seen in delica

Carrier
An infected individual who shows no obvious signs of clinical disease but can infect other susceptib

CAS Registry Number
A unique number assigned to a substance or mixture by the American Chemical Society Abstracts Servic

Case Definition
A case definition is the method by which public health professionals define who is included as a cas

Case Study
A medical or epidemiologic evaluation of one person or a small group of people to gather information

Case-Control Study
A study that compares exposures of people who have a disease or condition (cases) with people who do

Catarrh
Inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially of the air passages of the head and throat, with a fre

Central Nervous System
The part of the nervous system that consists of the brain and the spinal cord.

Cholera
An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Transmission to humans occurs through

Cholera El Tor
El Tor is the name given to a particular strain of the Vibrio cholera bacterium, the causative agent

Cholera Infantum
A common, noncontagious diarrhea of young children, occurring in summer or autumn. It was common amo

Chorea
Any of several diseases of the nervous system, characterized by jerky movements that appear to be we

Chronic Disease
A disease that is long-lasting or recurrent.

Chronic Exposure
Contact with a substance that occurs over a long time (more than 1 year) [compare with acute exposur

Clostridium Perfringens
A ubiquitous soil bacteria that can cause a deadly infection known as gas gangrene when it infects w

Cluster Investigation
A review of an unusual number, real or perceived, of health events (for example, reports of cancer)

Coinfection
Simultaneous infection with two or more different diseases. In virology the term is used to describe

Colic
Paroxysmal pain in the abdomen or bowels. Infantile colic is benign paroxysmal abdominal pain during

Common Source Epidemic
A common source epidemic occurs when a group of people is exposed to a single common source of infec

Community Assistance Panel (CAP)
A group of people from a community and from health and environmental agencies who work with ATSDR to

Comparison Value (CV)
Calculated concentration of a substance in air, water, food, or soil that is unlikely to cause harmf

Competence (For Bacteria)
The ability of a cell to take up extracellular ('naked') DNA from its environment.

Competence (For Hosts)
The efficiency with which a host acquires and spreads a pathogen.

Complex Life Cycle
A parasite that requires multiple different host species to complete its life cycle.

Concentration
The amount of a substance present in a certain amount of soil, water, air, food, blood, hair, urine,

Congestion
An excessive or abnormal accumulation of blood or other fluid in a body part or blood vessel. In con

Conjugation
The transfer of genetic material between bacteria through direct cell-to-cell contact

Consumption
A wasting away of the body; formerly applied especially to pulmonary tuberculosis

Contaminant
A substance that is either present in an environment where it does not belong or is present at level

Continuous Epidemic
A continuous epidemic occurs when a group of people is exposed to a single common source of infectio

Convulsions
Severe contortion of the body caused by violent, involuntary muscular contractions of the extremitie

Croup
Any Obstructive Condition Of The Larynx (Voice Box) Or Trachea (Windpipe), Characterized By A Hoarse

Cyst (Bacteria)
A resting or dormant stage in bacteria.

Cytokine
A substance that is produced by cells of the immune system and can affect the immune response.

Cytokine Storm
A potentially fatal immune reaction caused by highly elevated levels of various cytokines

Dead End Host
A host from which infectious agents are not transmitted to other susceptible hosts

Debility
Abnormal bodily weakness or feebleness; decay of strength. This was a term descriptive of a patient'

Definitive Host
The host in which the sexual reproduction of a parasite takes place

Delayed Health Effect
A disease or an injury that happens as a result of exposures that might have occurred in the past.

Dermal
Referring to the skin. For example, dermal absorption means passing through the skin.

Descriptive Epidemiology
The study of the amount and distribution of a disease in a specified population by person, place, an

Detection Limit
The lowest concentration of a chemical that can reliably be distinguished from a zero concentration.

Dilution
Adding a species to a community decreases the abundance of more competent hosts, decreasing the dise

Diphtheria
An acute infectious disease acquired by contact with an infected person or a carrier of the disease.

Disease Prevention
Measures used to prevent a disease or reduce its severity.

Disease Registry
A system of ongoing registration of all cases of a particular disease or health condition in a defin

DNA Virus
A virus that has DNA as its genetic material and replicates using a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase.

Dose (Not Radioactive)
The amount of a substance to which a person is exposed over some time period. Dose is a measurement

Dose (Radioactive Chemicals)
The radiation dose is the amount of energy from radiation that is actually absorbed by the body. Thi

Dose-Response Relationship
The relationship between the amount of exposure [dose] to a substance and the resulting changes in b

Dropsy
A contraction for hydropsy. The presence of abnormally large amounts of fluid. Congestive heart fail

Dysentery
A term given to a number of disorders marked by inflammation of the intestines (especially of the co

Ebola
Ebola is the common term for a group of viruses belonging to the genus Ebolavirus in the family Fil

Eclampsia
A form of toxemia (toxins--or poisons--in the blood) accompanying pregnancy. See dropsy.

Ecosystem Service
The quantifiable services that an ecosystem provides to humans.

Effluvia
Exhalations. In the mid-nineteenth century, they were called 'vapours' and distinguished into the co

Emerging Infectious Disease (EID)
A disease that has been recently discovered, recently increased in incidence, geography, or host ran

Endemic
The constant presence of a disease or infectious agent within a given geographic area.