User:ZayZayEM/Proposal:Distinguish disease from infectious organisms

A disease is not a virus, bacteria, fungus or protozoan. A disease is pathological condition characterised by certain symptoms.

Some diseases may be caused by infectious agents. These include most viruses, and certain bacteria, fungi, protozoans, nematodes, prions and other organisms.

Wikipedia should make an effort to distinguish diseases (medical conditions) from their infectious agents (organisms). This would be best achieved by creating seperate articles. Malaria ≠ Plasmodium; Ross River virus ≠ Ross River fever.

This is similar to having articles for individual genes that are distinguished from articles about the genetic diseases that may arise from their disruption.

Diseases should fall under Wikiproject Medicine, while organisms themselves that may cause disease should fall under their appropriate Tree-of-life/Biology Project.

Even with rare diseases that are caused by only one agent, and that agent really isn't known for anything but that disease - articles can get convoluted and unclear when trying discuss both the disease and the disease agent at the same time - take a look at a merge of Ross River.

The article regarding the disease should be thought of Summary of specific part of the organisms ecology (it is after-all just its interaction with another organism). In the disease article, the organism can be briefly introduced in the "Causes" section, and any relevant details (such as life cycle, direct organism interactions with body chemistry etc.) can be discussed at relevant points


 * Note: this is kind of rough at the moment, feel free to expand upon my points, if you unsure of the spirit of my suggestion, visit the talk page and discuss your suggestions and comments.