Disease, Diagnosis Treatment and Prevention Disease may be defined as the abnormal state in which part or all of the body is not properly adjusted or is not capable of carrying on all its required functions. There are marked (显著的) variations in the extent of the disease and in its effect on the person. In order to treat a disease, the doctor obviously must first determine the nature of the illness, that is, make a diagnosis. A diagnosis is the conclusion drawn from a number of facts put together. The doctor must know the symptoms, which are the changes in body function felt by the patient; and the signs (also called objective symptoms) which the doctor himself can observe. Sometimes a characteristic group of signs (or symptoms) accompanies a given disease. Such a group is called a syndrome (综合症). Frequently certain laboratory, tests are performed and the results evaluated by the physicians in making his diagnosis. Although nurses do not diagnose, they play an extremely valuable role in this process by observing closely for signs, encouraging the patient to talk about himself and his symptoms, and then reporting this information to the doctor. Once the patient’s disorder is known, the doctor prescribes a course of treatment, also referred as therapy. Many measures in this course of treatment are carried out by the nurse under the physician’s orders. In recent years physicians, nurses and other health workers have taken increasing responsibilities in prevention. Throughout most of medical history, the physician’s aim has been to cure a patient of an existing disease. However, the modem concept of prevention seeks to stop disease before it actually happens to keep people well through the promotion of health. A vast number of organizations exist for this purpose, ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) on an international level dawn to local private and community health programs. A rapidly growing responsibility of the nursing treatment profession is educating individual patients toward the maintenance of total health physical and mental. Modern medicine attaches much more importance to disease prevention than traditional medicine.