contagious disease

[angliholic]

To Granny Peach and XiaoBao, her five-year-old grandson, suicide seems like a contagious disease. In 2005, Granny Peach's son-in-law killed himself. Then Xiao Bao's mother, who was NT$1 million in debt, chose death as an escape. Her death came as a shock to Xiao Bao's father, who ended his own life shortly afterward.


Is "a contagious disease" equivalent to "a spreading disease?' Thanks.

[Anglika]

A contagious disease is one that is spread by contact between people or by contact with something touched or used by an infected person.

Smallpox is[was] a contagious disease.

[angliholic]

A contagious disease is one that is spread by contact between people or by contact with something touched or used by an infected person.

Smallpox is[was] a contagious disease.

Thanks, Anglika.
Do you imply that "a spreading disease" is of a more general term while "a contagious disease" is very specific?

[Anglika]

Contagious is very specific - it is spread by contact.

A disease can spread in other ways - through fleabites, mosquito bites, infected water, on the air etc.

[angliholic]

Thanks, Anglika.

[BobK]

Contagious is very specific - it is spread by contact.

A disease can spread in other ways - through fleabites, mosquito bites, infected water, on the air etc.

And the contact, as I'm sure Anglika knows, has to be body-to-body. You can catch an infectious disease just by breathing the same air as someone else; but that doesn't make the disease contagious.

b

[angliholic]

Thanks, Bobk, for the vital info.

[vil]

Contageous disease = Infectious disease that is spread through contact with infected individuals. Also called communicable disease. Contact with the bodily secretions of such individual, or with objects that they have contaminated, can also spread kind of disease.

[Naamplao]

To Granny Peach and XiaoBao, her five-year-old grandson, suicide seems like a contagious disease. In 2005, Granny Peach's son-in-law killed himself. Then Xiao Bao's mother, who was NT$1 million in debt, chose death as an escape. Her death came as a shock to Xiao Bao's father, who ended his own life shortly afterward.


Is "a contagious disease" equivalent to "a spreading disease?' Thanks.

You have a reasonable idea of what a "contagious disease" is by now...that is a disease that is easily passed from person to person by contact.

But "suicide" is not a disease. So in this sentence "like a contagious disease" is a simile comparing "suicide" to a "contagious disease". It seems to Granny Peach and her grandson that the willingness to commit suicide is spreading through their family as if it were a disease.

[angliholic]

Thanks, vil and Naamplao, for the extra info.