Diseases Flashcards
What is a communicable disease?
A disease that can be spread from person to person or between animals and people
What is a non-communicable disease?
A disease that can not be spread between people or from animals to people.
What is a micro-organism?
A very small single celled organism e.g bacteria, fungi viruses
What is a pathogen?
A disease causing micro-organism
What is the immune system?
The body’s defence mechanism against disease
How can pathogens be spread?
Air - Breathing in the pathogens
Animals - Getting bitten or scratched by a contaminated animal
Touching - Touching another person with the microbe on their skin
Food - Food can have pathogens on them
Water - Water can contain pathogens
How do pathogens make a person ill?
Produce toxins
Take over cells and destroy them
Make waste products
What 7 ways does the body have in preventing pathogens from entering the body and how do they work?
Skin - Physical barrier that protects the body from pathogens
Nose hairs - Helps traps pathogen in mucus
Stomach acid - Has a pH of 1 so pathogens are killed in it
Eyelashes - Barrier that protects the eye when it’s open
Tears - Salt content dries out pathogens
Scabs - Covers up gaps in the skin that might appear
Breathing system - Lined with mucus which trap pathogens and the cilia push then out the body
How do antibodies work?
Pathogens are covered in antigens
White blood cells produce antibodies to cover the antigens
Pathogens with anti-bodies attached are harmless
The body remembers the antibodies and can produce them easily
How does vaccination work?
A small amount of dead or weakened pathogens are injected into the body
The immune system produces antibodies slowly to stop the pathogen
When the pathogen infects you again the antibodies can be produces quickly to fight
What are antibiotics?
A medicine that inhibits the the growth or kills bacteria
What are the two types of antibiotics?
Bactericidal
Bacterialistic
What are bactericidal antibiotics?
Antibiotics that kill the bacteria
What are bacterialistic antibiotics?
Antibiotics that inhibit the growth of bacteria
How can bacteria become resistant to antibiotics?
The bacteria mutate when the reproduce and these mutations can make the bacteria can’t be killed by antibiotics
What was thalidomide?
A drug that could treat a range of diseases but it could cause birth defects to pregnant women because it wasn’t properly tested
