CURE encyclopedia topics

Difference between preventions, treatments, and cures

A prevention or preventive measure is a way to avoid an injury, sickness, or disease in the first place, and generally it will not help someone who is already ill (though there are exceptions). For instance, many American babies are given a polio vaccination soon after they are born, which prevents them from contracting polio. But the vaccination does not work on patients who already have polio. A treatment or cure is applied after a medical problem has already started.

A treatment treats a problem, and may lead to its cure, but treatments more often ameliorate a problem only for as long as the treatment is continued. For example, there is no cure for AIDS, but treatments are available to slow down the harm done by HIV and delay the fatality of the disease. Treatments don't always work. For example, chemotherapy is a treatment for cancer which may cure the disease sometimes - it does not have a 100% cure rate. Therefore, chemotherapy isn't considered a bona fide cure for cancer.

Examples of Cures

There are a few examples of complete cures. In 1999, the CDC and the World Health Organization established a goal to cure 85% of tuberculosis patients in Russia. They reached an 80% success rate, with 75% of the diseased cured, and 5% that had successfully finished treatment.

References

What's the Difference Between a Treatment and a Cure?

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Cure (disambiguation)

A Cure is a completely effective treatment for a disease

Cure, cured or cures may also refer to:

Music

The Cure, an English rock band
The Cure (album), by The Cure
Cured (album), by Steve Hackett
A song by Metallica from Load (album)

Film and television

Cure (film), 1997, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and starring Koji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki and Anna Nakagawa
The Cure (1917 film) a short film starring Charlie Chaplin
The Cure (1995 film), a drama starring Brad Renfro
"Cure" (Stargate SG-1), a television episode
"The Cure" (X-Men episode)

Print media

Cure (Magazine), a Japanese music and style magazine
CURE, a fictional organization in the novel series The Destroyer (fiction)

Sciences

Curing (chemistry), process of hardening a polymer material or Portland cement
Curing (food preservation), food preservation technique

Geography

Cures, an ancient Italian town
Cures, Sarthe, a commune in western France
Cure River, a river in France

Other

Cure (religion), the practical exercise of an ecclesiastical office
Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), an organization that fights ragging (hazing in the United States)
Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), a political organization