How our Bodies Defend Themselves Against Diseases Flashcards
What is the name of a microorganism that causes infectious diseases?
A pathogen.
Explain how bacteria and viruses can make us feel ill?
Bacteria and viruses can produce rapidly inside the body and they may produce toxins. Viruses damage the cells in which they reproduce.
Give the name of the type of cell that helps us to fight of pathogens and the three ways that it is able to do this.
White Blood Cells (WBC) can help us to fight off pathogens in three main ways. They can ingest pathogens, produce antibodies which lock on to the antigens released by the pathogen or they can produce antitoxins to lock on to the toxins released by pathogens.
How do vaccinations help to make you immune to a type of pathogen?
Small amounts of dead or inactive pathogen are injected in to your body. The antigens in the vaccination trick the body in to thinking in has been infected and so the white blood cells make antibodies which destroy the antigens. Next time you are infected with the same pathogen the white blood cells will remember how to make the correct antibody.
What did Semmelweis notice?
Semmelweis recognised the importance of
hand-washing in the prevention of spreading some
infectious diseases. By insisting that doctors washed
their hands before examining patients, he greatly
reduced the number of deaths from infectious
diseases in his hospital.
What do microorganisms need to grow?
Food, Warmth and Oxygen.
Describe the Aseptic technique.
Set up equipment (Bunsen burner, soil solution and inoculating loop) and pass the inoculating loop through the flame to kill the bacteria and sterilise it. Do the same with the neck of the bottle. Dip the loop in a soil solution. Open the lid of the agar dish just enough to zig zag the loop through it. next, secure the lid using small pieces of tape so that the sample doesn’t get contaminated by microbes in the air. Leave in a warm place (no higher than 25 degrees)
What is the difference between a painkiller and an antibiotic?
Painkillers help to relieve the symptoms of infectious disease but do not kill the pathogens however antibiotics are medicines that help to cure the bacterial infection.
What type of pathogen can antibiotics not cure?
Viruses.
What does antibiotic resistant mean?
The bacterium has mutated which prevents antibiotics from curing it.
Describe a type of antibiotic resistant bacteria, why it has come resistant and what has increased the rate of development of antibiotic resistant bacteria?
MRSA is an antibiotic resistant bacteria and it is almost impossible to treat. Over use, use when not needed and not completing courses of antibiotics are all factors which have sped up the rate of development of MRSA. A mutation in the genetic information has caused it.
Why do we need to produce new types of antibiotics?
Due to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
