There is a substantial difference between infectious and noninfectious disease. Infectious disease is caused by a pathogen that enters the body and can be transferred from person to person. Noninfectious disease is not caused by a pathogen or organism carrying disease.
How Are They Caused?
Infectious diseases can be caused by an organism that enters the host through physical contact directly and also through insects or even airborne. The organisms or pathogens live on us every day most of them microscopic and undetectable by the human eye. Some of these organisms can cause disease.
Some types of infectious diseases include viruses, bacteria, fungi and one celled animals called protozoa. The thing to remember is that infectious diseases can be passed from one person to the next. A good example is which is spread through sexual relations. The pathogen enters the body as a virus or in some cases bacteria. Some of these diseases will not even have any symptoms.
Noninfectious diseases are not caused by disease causing organisms or pathogens. These diseases are caused instead from genetic, lifestyle or the environment. Some good examples of these diseases include Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes. Noninfectious diseases can progress slowly but lead to rapid death. Examples of these kinds of diseases are stroke, cancer and heart attack.
Should You Be Worried?
Infectious diseases use to pose the most threat to people making them sick and dying. Within the modern world noninfectious diseases have become a bigger threat or problem. This is because noninfectious disease is related to lifestyles and the environments people live in . Diseases such as stroke and cancer can be caused by stress in the workplace along with a poor lifestyle.
By changing one’s lifestyle which includes eating a healthy diet and getting more exercise you can lower the incidence of a lot of these so called “Lifestyle Diseases Changing the environment you live in can reduce stress and make you less susceptible to High Blood Pressure and liver diseases along with other diseases.
Prevention and Risks
Some noninfectious diseases are the result of genetics. This is a predisposed way that your body sometimes has no control over. This noninfectious disease is caused by changes in genetic material or DNA. Some of the diseases included in this category include Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis and Down syndrome.
Not all cancers are from noninfectious disease. There is a small percentage of cancers that come from infectious diseases or organisms that invade the body through viruses and bacteria. Cancer of the cervix is one such cancer that can be sexually transmitted by the papillomavirus.
Some noninfectious diseases can be caused from the environment you are working and living in. The stressful lifestyle you are living and working in could be killing you. With some changes in lifestyle, diet and attitude one can avoid the pitfalls of everyday modern living.