Fighting Disease Flashcards
What are pathogens?
Micro-organisms that enter the body and cause diseases
What do pathogens cause?
Infectious diseases
What are the 2 main types of pathogen?
Bacteria
Viruses
What are bacteria?
Very small cells
What do bacteria do in the body?
Reproduce rapidly
How do bacteria cells make you feel ill?
Damage your cells
Produce toxins
Are viruses cells?
No
What do viruses do?
Replicate themselves by invading cells
Using the cells machinery to produce copies
This causes the cell to burst
Realising the new viruses
What 3 things stop bad things from entering your body?
Skin
Hairs
Mucus in your respiratory tract (breathing pipework)
How can your try to prevent microorganisms entering the body through cuts?
Small fragments of cells called platelets help blood clot quickly to seal the wounds
What would happen if the blood contains low numbers of platelets?
It would clot slowly
What are the 3 things white blood cells do when they come across an invading microbe?
Consumes them
Produces antibodies
Produces Antitoxins
How do wbc consume microbes?
They engulf foreign cells and digests them
How do wbc produce antibodies?
Every invading cell had unique molecules on its surface (antigens)
WBC produce proteins called antibodies to lock onto and kill the cells
The antibodies are specific to the antigens
If the person is affected again the person would be naturally immune as the wbc will rapidly produce the antibodies
What do antitoxins do?
They counteract toxins produced by the invading bacteria
