B6: Treating and Preventing Disease Flashcards
What are the three ways white blood cells can defend against pathogens?
- They can ‘engulf’ or ingest pathogens- the pathogen is then digested.
- Some white blood cells produce antibodies. These attach to the antigens on the pathogen. This causes the pathogens to ‘clump’ together, making it easier to engulf them.
- Some white blood cells produce antitoxins to neutralise the harmful effects of toxins produced by bacteria/fungi.
What are some ways of preventing disease?
Sneezing/coughing into a tissue.
Washing hands thoroughly.
Food preparation (everything cooked properly).
Vaccination.
What are some ways of treating disease?
Antibiotics
Painkillers
Other medicines appropriate.
What does an antibiotic do?
It kills bacteria.
What does an anti-inflammatory do?
It reduces swelling.
What is a vaccination?
Vaccination involves injecting small amounts of dead or weakened pathogens into the body. This stimulates white blood cells to produce antibodies.If the same pathogen enters the body again, white blood cells make the antibodies very quickly to prevent infection. This is called immunity.
What is immunity?
Immunity is when your white blood cells produce the correct antibodies very quickly after getting the same infection again. (This is because the white blood cells already know what to do as you have already had the infection).
What is herd immunity?
When a large proportion of the population are immune to a disease, the spread of the pathogen in the population is very much reduced and the disease may even disappear.
What is penicillin used for?
Penicillin cures bacterial infections.
What is digitalis used for?
Digitalis is used to help strengthen your heartbeat.
What does aspirin do?
Aspirin has anti-flammatory and pain-relieving properties that can treat a wide range of health problems.
How does the population of resistant bacteria develop?
Some bacteria are more resistant to antibiotics than others. The bacteria that is more resistant will survive and then reproduce. This increases the population of resistant bacteria.
Explain why antibiotics are not used to treat influenza (flu).
Antibiotics kill bacteria. They cannot kill viral pathogens so they have no effect on diseases like influenza (flu) caused by viruses.
State a disease that can be treated with antibiotics.
Ear infection
Explain why scientists find it difficult to develop medicines against viruses.
It is extremely difficult to develop drugs that will kill the viruses without damaging the cells and tissues of the body at the same time.
