Conditions

Sepsis is not a disease in its own right but a complication: it is the body's response to an infection when the defensive reaction runs out of control and…

Septic arthritis is a bacterial infection inside a joint. Two things set it apart from other joint pain: it usually affects one joint only, and it comes on…

STIs are a broad group of infections passed on during vaginal, anal and oral sex, and some of them simply through close skin and mucous membrane contact.

Shingles is the chickenpox virus waking up. It stayed behind in the nerve roots after that childhood illness and gave no sign of itself for years.

Short-sightedness means seeing well up close and blurred in the distance: faces are hard to recognise, signs smear together, at the cinema you find yourself…

This is the commonest cause of shoulder pain in adults. The arm seems to work, but lifting it above a certain height hurts, reaching behind your back hurts…

Sick building syndrome is the name given to a set of symptoms that appear inside one particular building and settle once you leave it.

Sickle cell anaemia is an inherited disorder of the blood. Because of a single changed letter in one gene, haemoglobin clumps into stiff fibres whenever…

Silicosis is scarring of the lungs from breathing in silica dust. Silica is an ordinary substance in the earth's crust: it is in sand, sandstone, granite…

Sinusitis is inflammation of the lining of the sinuses, the air-filled spaces inside the bones of the face.