Non-communicable diseases in Malta.

Abstract

A disease is any condition that disturbs the normal functioning of a living organism, whether in whole or in separate organs or systems. The term may also be defined is the failure of an organism to respond adaptively to its environment. The word disease itself simply means "dis-ease", that is, lack of health and well-being. Disease are usually distinguished from injuries, which are physical disruptions of an organism. In addition, the term usually does not include basic ageing processes, although a number of degenerative conditions associated with ageing are also considered diseases. In humans disease are categorised as acute or severe and short-term; chronic or long-term and recurrent or periodic. Human diseases are usually classified to cause or causes, which are countless and are grouped as external or internal in nature. There are two types of diseases which are communicable and the non-communicable diseases. Communicable disease are synonymous with infectious diseases, they are caused by a living organism and transmitted from person to person or from animal or bird to a man, either directly or indirectly. Non-communicable are those diseases which oppositely cannot be transmitted from person to person. The most common four non-communicable diseases in Malta are Cancer, Diabetes, Coronary Hearth Disease and Stroke. A fully detailed description of these diseases are given further in this project.