Eli5: what’s the difference between a syndrome, a disease, and an infection?
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disease is anything that makes you feel sick
infection is a disease that can spread from one person to another. Diabetes and heart disease are not infections, you get them from unhealthy lifestyle. Allergies are not infections either, you are born with them, or maybe get them from environment that is a bit too clean.
Syndrome is a disease that we have not figured out yet. It is a collection of symptoms that happen together in many people, but we do not know what causes them. AIDS has S for syndrome, they noticed that there are people who suddenly lost their immune function. Later, they found that it is caused by HIV, which is a virus, and an infection. Now AIDS is a well-understood disease, but the name stuck. A syndrome can also be causes by combination of diseases, or some chemicals, or life experiences.
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