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What is the difference between a non-communicable disease and a communicable disease?

Over the last twenty years or so, the world of medicine has been filled with the term non-communicable diseases or NCD’s, warning that they have become very popular and in fact is the leading cause of ill health and death in many countries, especially in first world countries. So, what exactly then is a non-communicable disease? A non-communicable disease is any disease or condition that cannot be spread or transmitted from person to person. Such a disease can either progress slowly over time, or appear suddenly and last for a very long time. A non-communicable disease is different from a communicable disease that is easily spread between people.