Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) congenital heart disease, any defect in the heart present at birth. There is evidence that some congenital heart defects are inherited, but the cause of most cases is unknown. One known cause is infec...

(Encyclopedia) hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), infectious viral disease that most commonly occurs in children under five years of age. Symptoms include fever, poor appetite, and a sore throat, followed by pain...

(Encyclopedia) occupational disease, illness incurred because of the conditions or environment of employment. Unlike with accidents, some time usually elapses between exposure to the cause and development of symptom...

(Encyclopedia) Dutch elm disease: see diseases of plants; elm. ...

(Encyclopedia) coronary artery disease, condition that results when the coronary arteries are narrowed or occluded, most commonly by atherosclerotic deposits of fibrous and fatty tissue. Coronary artery disease is t...

(Encyclopedia) sexually transmitted disease (STD) or venereal disease, term for infections acquired mainly through sexual contact. Five diseases were traditionally known as venereal diseases: gonorrhea, syphilis, an...

(Encyclopedia) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. The ...

(Encyclopedia) pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), infection of the female reproductive organs, usually resulting from infection with the bacteria that cause chlamydia or gonorrhea. The infection typically first affe...

(Encyclopedia) Wexler, Nancy, 1945–, American geneticist and neuropsychologist, b. Washington, D.C., Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1974. After her mother was diagnosed with Huntington's disease in 1968, her father, the...

(Encyclopedia) Kawasaki, Tomisaku, 1925–2020, Japanese pediatrician. He joined (1950–90) what is now the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, Tokyo, and became director of pediatrics there in 1973. In 1961 he enco...