Acute illness
Acute illness
Most diseases can be classified as either acute or chronic.
These terms can indicate the categories of treatment required, the expected duration of treatment, and whether treatment is appropriate. Acute diseases are those that appear suddenly and have a brief, severe course, whereas chronic diseases last for a long time and may fluctuate in severity. Acute diseases necessitate immediate medical attention due to their potential for causing death. Acute diseases include organ failure, difficulty breathing, infections that spread rapidly, and tissue death, or necrosis.
Acute is not synonymous with new, but many newly diagnosed diseases exhibit acute symptoms. It also does not imply that the symptoms are severe. It indicates that symptoms have developed rapidly and that medical intervention is required.
Similarly, chronic should not be interpreted as fatal or as something that will necessarily diminish your life span. It indicates that the condition cannot be treated. Chronic conditions (such as diabetes or excessive blood pressure) can frequently be managed.
Arthritis is an example of a newly diagnosed illness that can be labelled chronic if there is no hope of a cure. Some expand the definition to include developmental, functional, and visual impairments requiring ongoing care or management.
Phases of Disease
Acute and chronic diagnoses are not necessarily permanent. Occasionally, an acute condition can become chronic, while a chronic condition can abruptly manifest acute symptoms. Certain infections, for instance, will transition from an acute phase (in which symptoms appear and resolve after the initial exposure) to a chronic phase (in which the infection persists but progresses more slowly). The chronic infection may lay dormant for years in a latent state before manifesting new, typically severe, acute complications.
Syphilis and hepatitis C are examples of such conditions. Both will manifest with acute symptoms that subside spontaneously, indicating that the infections have cleared. However, if left untreated, the infections can progress invisibly and manifest years later as severe complications such as tertiary syphilis or liver failure, respectively.
Similarly, non-infectious disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis can cause similar symptoms. Both conditions are regarded chronic because they cannot be cured, but they can be managed with the right care and treatment. Nevertheless, the diseases can have sporadic flare-ups in which acute symptoms develop and subside spontaneously. If left untreated, the majority, but not all, chronic diseases will result in an acute event. As an illustration, atherosclerosis can result in a heart attack or stroke if measures are not taken to reduce arterial plaque build-up or lower blood pressure.
Some chronic disorders may remain subclinical (without easily observable symptoms) and never manifest acutely if diagnosed and treated early. Infections such as HIV and conditions such as hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol) are frequently diagnosed and treated before symptoms manifest.
Example of Acute medical conditions
- Asthma attack
- Broken bone
- Bronchitis
- Burn
- COVID-19
- Common cold
- Flu
- Heart attack
- Pneumonia
- Respiratory infection
- Strep throat