ICEBERG PHENOMENON OF DISEASE
DESCRIPTION v According to this concept, the disease in the community is compared to an Iceberg. v When a piece of ice is allowed to float on water, a small portion is visible and a major portion is submerged in the water. v The visible tip of ice is compared to clinical cases, which the physician sees in the community. v The major submerged portion of ice corresponds to hidden mass of unrecognized diseases such as latent cases, in apparent, carriers, asymptomatic and undiagnosed cases in the community, which are responsible for the constant prevalence of the disease in the community. v In some diseases like HTN, diabetes, anemia, malnutrition, mental illness etc. the unknown morbidity is more than the known morbidity in the community and constitutes an important, undiagnosed reservoirs of disease in the community.