AfyaMesh
Learn Sick!
What common illnesses are, how they show, and what to do. Written to be read by anybody.
Explore by health area
All health topics
Chest and breathing
Tuberculosis (TB)
An infection that usually settles in the lungs and develops slowly, over weeks rather than days. It is curable, and the treatment is long and has to be finished.
Pneumonia
An infection in the lungs. In small children it is one of the most common causes of serious illness, and it is treatable when it is caught early.
Asthma
The airways narrowing and becoming inflamed, in episodes. It is controllable, and well controlled it should not be limiting what somebody does.
Cough
Usually a viral infection that clears on its own in one to two weeks. What matters is how long it has lasted and what comes with it.
Heart and blood
High blood pressure
Blood pushing too hard against the walls of the vessels, over a long time. It usually causes no symptoms at all, which is why it damages the heart, kidneys and eyes quietly.
Sickle cell disease, trait and family planning
An inherited condition affecting haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying part of red blood cells. Sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait are different. Knowing both partners' haemoglobin genotypes helps them understand the chances for their children.
Anaemia
Not enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body. It is a sign of something else - iron deficiency, malaria, worms, sickle cell, blood loss - and finding which one is the point.
Diabetes
HIV and infections passed on
HIV
A virus that weakens the immune system over years. With treatment, people live a normal lifespan and cannot pass it on to a partner. Untreated, it becomes dangerous.
Sexually transmitted infection
An infection passed during sex. Most are curable, and the ones that are not are manageable. Left alone they can cause lasting damage, including infertility.
Hepatitis B
A virus that infects the liver. It is common in this region, often causes nothing for decades, and can quietly damage the liver over that time. It is preventable by vaccine.
Malaria and fevers
Malaria
An infection carried by mosquitoes. It is common here and it is treatable, but it can become dangerous quickly, especially in children under five and in pregnancy.
Typhoid fever
An infection caught from contaminated food or water. It builds over days rather than arriving suddenly.
Fever
A raised body temperature. It is a sign, not an illness - the question is always what is causing it, and in this setting malaria has to be ruled out first.
Stomach and gut
Diarrhoea and dehydration
Loose or watery stool, usually from an infection. In a child the danger is almost never the diarrhoea itself - it is losing more fluid than they take in.
Intestinal worms
Parasites in the gut, picked up from soil, unwashed food or untreated water. Very common in children and easy to treat.
Toothache
Usually decay reaching the nerve, or an infection at the root. Pain relief buys time; it does not fix the tooth, and the problem continues underneath it.
Urine and kidneys
Skin and injuries
Rash and skin itching
A rash is a change in skin colour, texture or sensation. Infection, mites, eczema, medicines and allergies can all cause it. Treatment depends on the cause; a similar appearance does not mean the same disease.
Burns
Damage to the skin from heat, hot liquid, chemicals or electricity. What is done in the first twenty minutes changes how badly it scars.
Snake bite
A suspected snakebite needs urgent hospital assessment. Venom can damage tissue, affect blood clotting or interfere with breathing. Some bites do not inject venom, but appearance alone cannot establish safety.
Mind, sleep and headache
Headache
Most headaches are tension-type or migraine and are not caused by anything dangerous. A small number are a sign of something that needs seeing quickly, and those have a particular pattern.
Low mood, worry and sleep
Persistent low mood, worry or sleeplessness is a health problem like any other, it is common, and it responds to treatment. It is not weakness and it is not a spiritual failing.
Anxiety disorders
Persistent fear or worry that becomes hard to control and interferes with life. Anxiety disorders are treatable health conditions, not a failure of willpower.
Depression
A treatable condition that affects mood, interest, energy and everyday functioning. It can happen to anyone and is not laziness or a character weakness.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A treatable mental health condition in which the effects of a traumatic event continue to disrupt life. It can affect anyone, including children.
Women's and girls' health
Contraception and family planning
Family planning is deciding whether and when to have a child, and using something that holds until you are ready. It is not one thing. Some methods you take yourself, some a nurse fits and you forget about for years, and all of them stop when you want them to.
Periods and menstrual health
A period is the bleeding that comes from the womb about once a month between puberty and the change of life. It is not an illness and not something to be ashamed of. Pain or bleeding heavy enough to stop your day is a different matter, and it has causes that can be found and treated.
Cervical cancer and HPV screening
A cancer of the cervix, the neck of the womb. Nearly all of it comes from a common virus called HPV, which is passed on during sex. Most HPV infections clear by themselves and cause nothing. A few stay for years and slowly change the cells of the cervix - and those changes can be found and treated long before they ever become a cancer.
Breast awareness and breast lumps
Breast awareness is simply knowing how your own breasts normally look and feel, so that a change is something you notice rather than something you find by accident years later. Most breast lumps turn out not to be cancer. The reason to have one looked at is that the ones that are cancer are far easier to treat while they are still small.
Mother and child
Malnutrition in children
A child not getting enough of what their body needs to grow. It is treatable, and treated early it is treatable at home.
Pregnancy and antenatal care
Antenatal care is the series of checks through a pregnancy that find problems early, when they are still easy to deal with.
After the birth: care and danger signs
The weeks after a birth are when a mother is most likely to become seriously ill, and most of that happens in the first few days. Postnatal care is the set of checks on the mother and the baby through that time. It is the part of maternity care people most often skip, because the baby has arrived and everything feels finished.