Category: C

A doctor who works in the specialty that encompasses preventing medicine, epidemiology and public health.  

Formerly entitled consultant paediatrician (community child health), these are specialists dealing with children with chronic problems not involving acute or hospital care. For example, they have a primary role in dealing with disabled children, children with special educational needs and abused children.  

A term that includes district nurses, health visitors, practice nurses and school nurses. While customarily based in a general practice or a health centre, they are independent health professionals contracted to the NHS.  

Intended as a key part of the NHS’s local comprehensive mental health services serving populations of around 50,000, these multidisciplinary, multi-agency teams have been less effective than expected, in part due to varying modes of operation in different districts. Some experts argue that the services they provide for example, crisis intervention, liaison with primary care…

Community care is intended to enable people to lead independent lives at home or in local residential units for as long as they are able to do so. For many years there has been a trend in Britain for care for elderly people and those with mental or physical problems to be shifted from hospitals…

The control of disease caused by infectious agents or their toxic products. Successes in the 19th and 20th centuries in the treatment and control of communicable diseases such as smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal infections, poliomyelitis and sexually transmitted diseases resulted in an erroneous conception that they no longer posed a serious threat to public health,…

Description of a gram-negative bacterium found in the faeces. It covers the bacterial groups Enterobacter, Escherichia, and Klebsiella.  

A drug of value in the treatment of the pruritus, or itching, which occurs in association with jaundice. It does this by ‘binding’ the bile salts in the gut and so preventing their being reabsorbed into the bloodstream, where their excess in jaundice is responsible for the itching. It reduces the level of cholesterol and…

Cold-weather itch is a common form of itchiness that occurs in cold weather. It is characterised by slight dryness of the skin, and is particularly troublesome in the legs of old people. The dryness may be accompanied by some mild inflammation of the skin. Treatment is by the application of emollients such as aqueous cream…

Spherical bacteria that cause a variety of infections. Staphylococci, streptococci and meningococci are examples. Round-shaped bacteria that appear singly (alone) or in groups. The three types of cocci are staphylococci, streptococci, and diplococci.