Here are some of the common illnesses, the people and places connected to illness, and the verbs used to talk about illness.

A disease is any illness caused by an infection or by bacteria.

An infection is a disease which you can catch from other people who have one.

A virus is a germ which causes illnesses such as flu.

If you have an allergy to something, then when you come in contact with it or eat it your body has a bad reaction. Many people are allergic to nuts, for example.

Flu is a common illness and results in people having a fever and aches.

A heart attack occurs when the heart stops working correctly.

There are many different types of cancer. Cancer is the growth of cells in a body and lung cancer is one of the most common cancers.

A tumour is a large growth on an organ of the body such as the brain.

If people have a stroke, their heart has a sudden problem.

An ulcer is a painful area of skin which is often a yellow colour.

Appendicitis is a severe pain in the appendix. You usually have to have the appendix removed by an operation.

Chickenpox is usually found in young children. The symptoms are red spots and a fever.

Asthma is a disease which causes great difficulty in breathing.

Mental illness is the general term for many different kinds of problems with the mind and the brain.

Depression is a common type of mental illness. It causes people to have very negative ideas and thoughts about life.

When a person is paralysed, he or she cannot move all or parts of their body.

Arthritis is a disease of the joints in the body which makes it difficult to move parts of the body.

A migraine is a very severe headache.

If we eat old or bad food, we can get food poisoning.

A coma is a state where people are unconscious for a long time.

The first person you tell about an illness is usually your doctor. A doctor is also called a GP (general practitioner).

The patient is a person who is being treated for an illness.

A nurse is a person who helps doctors look after ill people.

A consultant is a very experienced and skilled doctor who knows a lot about one specific kind of illness. Consultants are also called specialists.

A surgeon is a doctor with special skills in operations.

The anaesthetist is a person in a hospital who makes people unconscious before operations.

A paramedic is a person with some medical training who helps with ill people.

A physiotherapist helps people with problems of body movement.

A ward is a section of a hospital with beds for ill people.

An operating theatre is the place where operations take place.

The accident and emergency unit is a place in the hospital where ambulances bring newly ill people such as those who have had car crashes.

When a doctor diagnoses your illness, he or she tells you what illness you have.

When an illness has gone, the patient is cured.

When an illness is going, a patient is recovering or getting better.

If you are taken ill, an illness has begun.

If a patient deteriorates, he or she gets worse and the illness becomes more serious.

In an emergency, people are rushed to hospital.

A surgeon operates on ill people.

An anaesthetist puts people to sleep before an operation.

When a part of our body is replaced it is called a transplant.

We have an injection to prevent us getting some illnesses.

We say that we catch a cold or catch the flu.

At a doctor's you need to describe your symptoms.

A doctor can prescribe tablets or medicine which you need to buy from a pharmacy.

When you are ill, you will need a course of treatment.

When we say a person suffers from an illness, they are feeling bad because of it.

Infectious diseases spread from person to person.