Public Health Terms
Public health works to prevent disease and improve health across whole populations. These terms cover how infections spread and are controlled, vaccination and herd immunity, how common a disease is, and the social factors that shape health.
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- Basic reproduction numberEpidemiologyThe basic reproduction number, R0, is the average number of people one infectious person would infect in a population with no immunity.
- Body mass indexFood NutritionBody mass index is a screening measure that relates body weight to height, found by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared.
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- CarcinogenOncologyA carcinogen is any substance, radiation, microbe or other exposure that can cause cancer or raise the chance of it developing.
- Case fatality rateEpidemiologyThe case fatality rate is the share of people diagnosed with a particular disease who die of it, a basic measure of how severe that disease is.
- Communicable diseasePublic HealthA communicable disease is an infection that can pass from one person or animal to another, directly or through air, water, food, objects or vectors.
- COPDMedicineCOPD is a long-term lung disease, usually caused by smoke or polluted air, in which damaged airways and air sacs limit the flow of air out of the lungs.
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- EndemicEpidemiologyIn epidemiology, endemic describes a disease that is always found in a population or region at a fairly steady, expected level.
- EpidemicEpidemiologyAn epidemic is a rise in cases of a disease, often sudden, above the level normally expected in a given population, area and time.
- EpidemiologyEpidemiologyEpidemiology is the study of how often diseases and other health events occur in populations, what causes them and how they can be controlled.
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- Health equityPublic HealthHealth equity means every person has a fair chance to be as healthy as possible, with no avoidable, unjust differences in health between social groups.
- HelminthParasitologyA helminth is a parasitic worm, such as a roundworm, tapeworm or fluke, that lives in a host and is usually visible to the eye as an adult.
- Herd immunityEpidemiologyHerd immunity is the indirect protection a population gains when so many people are immune that an infection can no longer spread easily.
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- IncidenceEpidemiologyIncidence is the number of new cases of a disease that arise in a population at risk during a specified period of time.
- InfluenzaVirologyInfluenza, or flu, is a contagious infection of the nose, throat and lungs caused by influenza viruses that brings sudden fever, cough and aches.
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- MalariaParasitologyMalaria is a life-threatening infection caused by Plasmodium parasites, which infected female Anopheles mosquitoes pass to people when they bite.
- MalnutritionFood NutritionMalnutrition is a state in which someone's intake of energy or nutrients is too low, too high or unbalanced, harming growth, health or body function.
- MicronutrientFood NutritionA micronutrient is a vitamin or mineral that the body needs only in tiny amounts but cannot do without, such as iron, iodine, vitamin A or folate.
- MorbidityPublic HealthMorbidity is the state of having a disease, injury or disability, and also the amount of illness in a population, measured by incidence and prevalence.
- Mortality rateEpidemiologyA mortality rate is how often death occurs in a defined population over a set period, usually given as deaths per 1,000 or 100,000 people.
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- PandemicEpidemiologyA pandemic is an epidemic that crosses international borders and spreads over several continents, typically infecting very many people.
- PlasmodiumParasitologyPlasmodium is a genus of single-celled parasites, spread by Anopheles mosquitoes, that infect liver and red blood cells and cause malaria.
- PrevalenceEpidemiologyPrevalence is the share of a population living with a particular disease or condition, either at one point in time or across a set period.
- Public healthPublic HealthPublic health is the science and practice of preventing disease and injury and promoting health across whole communities rather than individual patients.
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- SchistosomiasisParasitologySchistosomiasis is an infection with Schistosoma blood flukes, whose larvae burrow through skin in fresh water and whose eggs damage organs.
- Social determinants of healthPublic HealthSocial determinants of health are the nonmedical factors, such as income, education, housing and work, that shape a person's health throughout life.
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- ToxicologyPharmacologyToxicology is the science of poisons: how chemicals and other agents harm living things, at what doses, and how poisoning is detected and treated.
- TuberculosisMedicineTuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis that most often attacks the lungs and spreads through the air.
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