Chapter 2 - Disease Flashcards
What does bacteria do?
Splits into two & produces toxins which make you feel ill and damages your body.
What do viruses do to your body?
Takes over cells in your body, as they reproduce they damage and destroy cells
What does your immune system do?
Its response can also make you feel ill - may raise temperature or make you throw up
What did Semmelweis observe?
That the medical students who had just performed autopsies on mothers who had just died of child bed fever picked up cadaverous cells and passed them on to the mothers in labour they then helped, because they didn’t wash their hands in between.
Why didn’t Semmelweis publish his work straight away?
So as not to offend the doctors by telling them they had killed patients they were trying to help.
What do antibiotics do?
Kill or reduce the spread of bacteria
What is an example of an antibiotic?
Penicillin (discovered by Alexander Flemming in a type of mould
What does penicillin do?
Stops the cell wall forming
