The Difference of Acute and Chronic Diseases

Acute and Chronic Diseases Difference

Acute and chronic terms are often used in the diagnosis of a disease. However, it turns out that not everyone understands the meaning of both terms. Even some people believe that acute diseases and chronic diseases are the same things. In fact, the nature of both types of the diseases is very different.

The term acute is more appropriate to be used for a disease which has a relatively short duration or when the cause of the attack happens in a quick time. While the term chronic is used to describe a disease that can be sustained for a long period or evolving slowly.

Recognizing the Acute Disease

Acute disease refers to diseases that occur and cause sudden complaints. Usually, the suffered disease is not long, the progression is rapid, and it needs an urgent care.

The following are some examples of acute disease.

Asthma attacks

Asthma attacks are symptoms of asthma that worsened suddenly. It is usually characterized by shortness of breath, wheezing, a tightening neck and chest muscles, pale face, sweating, feelings of anxiety, panic, and coughing due to constriction of the airway muscles or bronchial. During asthma attacks, the lining of the respiratory tract may experience swelling, inflamed, and the excess production of mucus.

To avoid these asthma attacks, it is important to avoid triggering factors. If an asthma attack occurs, do the following as the first aid on asthma.

1. Calm yourself,

2. Sit back and breathe slowly,

3. Use inhalers or nebulizer in order to handle asthma attacks properly,

4. When the conditions fail to improve or tightness felt quite heavily, immediately search for the nearest medical aid.

Dengue fever

Dengue fever is one of the acute diseases caused by dengue virus. The symptoms of dengue fever are generally in the form of a fever accompanied by joint and muscle pain that is severe, swollen lymph, headache, weakness and the appearance of a reddish rash. For those of you who experience signs and symptoms of dengue fever, it is important to immediately see a doctor in order to diagnose this disease uickly. If it does not get the proper handling, the disease can be life-threatening.

To detect the dengue fever disease, in addition to do a physical examination, blood examination will be performed. The handling of dengue fever patients, among others, are by getting sufficient rest and consuming plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration due to high fever or vomiting. The consumption of drugs such as aspirin, pain reliever, or non-steroid anti-inflammation drugs and treatments in the hospital, may also be recommended.

Understanding Chronic Diseases

Aside from the length of illness suffered, chronic diseases are more complex, and cause a decrease in the health condition of a person's gradually. Often chronic diseases can cause someone to lose lives.

Diseases that can be included as a category of chronic diseases, among which are:

Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure is categorized as chronic diseases that affect the ability of the muscle of the heart in pumping blood. This condition is caused by a build-up of fluids that inhibit the work of the heart muscle so it cannot pump blood efficiently.

For someone who suffered the disease of heart failure, it is necessary to control the disease on a regular basis, regularly taking medication from a doctor, living a healthy lifestyle, and set the pattern of eating. The purpose of the routine control is to prevent the disease from developing into more severe, thereby lowering the risk of death from heart failure of the illness.

Cancer disease

Cancer can also be categorized into a chronic disease. For someone who suffered cancer, like ovarian cancer, blood cancer, or cancer of the breast, it is necessary to perform regular control and treatment, so that cancer cells may get lost or not growing.

The given treatment aims to control the disease, relieve symptoms, and help cancer patients to live longer. Treatment for cancer is quite various, depending on how severe the disease of cancer suffered, the amount of the cancer, the level of deployment, the location of the cancer, and sufferer’s health conditions. Performed treatment may include surgical removal of the cancer, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy.

It is important to understand the difference of acute and chronic diseases, because the difference of both of this diseases nature will determine the type of treatment needed.