• addiction (addictions)
NOUN Addiction is the condition of taking harm ful drugs and being unable to stop taking them.
■ long-term addiction to nicotine
• allergy (allergies)
NOUN If you have a particular allergy, you become ill or get a rash when you eat, smell, or touch something that does not normally make people ill.
■ Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms.
• cancer (cancers)
NOUN Cancer is a serious disease in which cells in a person’s body increase rapidly in an uncontrolled way, producing abnormal growths.
■ a cancer research charity
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN You are suffering from dehydration if you lose too much water from your body.
■ Cholera causes severe dehydration.
• disease (diseases)
NOUN A disease is an illness that affects people, animals or plants, for example one which is caused by bacteria or infection.
■ the rapid spread of disease in the area
• infection (infections)
NOUN An infection is a disease caused by germs or bacteria.
■ Ear infections are common in pre-school children.
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Someone suffering from obesity is extremely fat.
■ The excessive
consumption of sugar leads to obesity
• stroke (strokes)
NOUN If someone has a stroke, a blood vessel in their brain bursts or becomes blocked, which may kill them or make them unable to move one side of their body.
■ He had a minor stroke in 1987, which left him partly paralyzed.
Verbs associated with treatment:
• administer (administers, administering, administered)
VERB If a doctor or nurse administers a drug, they give it to a patient.
■ Paramedics are trained to administer certain drugs.
• admit (admits, admitting, admitted)
VERB If someone is admitted to hospital they are taken into hospital for treatment and kept there until they are well enough to go home.
■ She was admitted to hospital with a soaring temperature.
• diagnose (diagnoses, diagnosing, diagnosed)
VERB If someone or something is diagnosed as having a particular illness or problem, their illness or problem is identified.
■ Almost a million people are diagnosed with colon cancer each year.
• discharge (discharges, discharging, discharged)
VERB When someone is discharged from hospital, they are officially allowed to leave, or told they must leave.
■ He has a broken nose but may be discharged today.
• examine (examines, examining, examined)
VERB If a doctor examines you, he or she looks at your body, feels it, or does simple tests in order to check how healthy you are.
■ Another doctor examined her and could still find nothing wrong.
• screen (screens, screening, screened)
VERB To screen for a disease means to examine people to make sure that they do not have it.
■ Men over 50 are routinely screened for prostate abnormalities.
• vaccinate (vaccinates, vaccinating, vaccinated)
VERB A vaccine is a harmless form of the germs that cause a particular disease. If a person or animal is vaccinated, they are given a vaccine, usually by injection, to prevent them getting that disease.
■ Dogs must be vaccinated against distemper.