Infection and response Flashcards
Communicable disease
Can be spread from person to person by pathogens
Non communicable disease
Can’t spread from person to person
Health
The state of physical and mental well being
What can cause illhealth?
Communicable/ noncommunicable disease
Poor diet
High stress levels
Life situations eg working with dangerous chemicals (eg radiation)
What can diseases cause in terms of other disease?
Getting one can increase chance of being infected by another, eg HIV increases risk of TB
One can actually cause another disease eg HPV can cause cervical cancer
A mental illness
An allergy
Pathogen
Microorganisms that cause disease
Pathogens list
Bacteria
Virus
Protists
Fungi
How bacteria makes us ill
Once inside, they reproduce quickly
They release toxins that damage tissue and makes us ill
How virus makes us ill
Can’t reproduce by themselves so they require entering inside a host cell
Reproduces inside the cell which bursts
Allowing them to spread across the body
How do pathogens spread
In the air inside water droplets
Directly in water (drinking it)
Spread by direct contact with infected people:
Sexually transmitted
Sharing needles
How to reduce spread of pathogens
Basic hygiene ie washing hands
Clean drinking water
Using condoms during sex
Isolating patients
Vaccination
What can viruses not be affected by?
Antibiotics
Examples of virus
Measles
HIV
Measles symptoms
At first = fever
3 days = red skin rash
What spreads measles?
Droplets when infected person coughs/sneezes
When a person inhales it = infected
Effects of measles
Damage to breathing system and brain
Death
How to stop spread of measles
Vaccination of children when young
HIV symptoms
Flu like illness at first
Deteriorating the immune system
What spreads HIV
Exchanging bodily fluids between people:
Unprotected sex
Sharing needles
Effects of HIV
Virus begins attacking cells of immune system
Immune system so badly damaged it can’t fight off less severe infections
Unable to fight off cancer
How to treat HIV
Antiretroviral drugs taken for rest of life
Stop virus from multiplying inside the patient so doesn’t damage the immune system
Doesn’t develop AIDS
examples of bacteria
Salmonella
Gonorrhoea
What can kill bacteria?
Antibiotics
What causes salmonella?
Ingesting infected food
Eg in unprepared conditions
Symptoms of salmonella
Fever
Abdominal cramps
Vomiting
Diarrhoea
How to prevent spread of salmonella
Use hygienic food preparation conditions such as washing knife after using it on chicken
Vaccinating poultry against it
What spreads gonorrhoea?
Sexually transmitted
How to treat gonorrhoea
Use antibiotics to treat it at first
How to prevent spread of gonorrhoea
Condom during sex stop bacteria passing through
Treat with antibiotics before they spread it again
What type of pathogen causes malaria?
Protist
How is malaria (protist) spread?
Infected person is bitten by a mosquito (vector)
Malaria pathogen spreads to mosquito
Mosquito bites someone else = they get infected
Vector
The thing that carries the protist pathogen from one person to another
How to prevent spread of malaria
Prevent breeding of mosquitoes
By draining areas of still water where they breed
Spray those areas with insecticides
Prevent them biting humans eg mosquito nets
Types of defence systems the body has against pathogens
Non specific defence systems
Immune system
Non specific defence system job
Prevent pathogens actually entering the body
Main parts of non specific defence system
Skin
Nose
Cilia
Stomach
Skin as a defence system
Forms protective layer covering the body
Consists of dead cells pathogens can’t penetrate
Produces oily substance sebum that kills bacteria
What happens if skin is cut?
Pathogens could enter the body
Platelets form scab so they can’t enter
Nose as a defence system
Contain hair and mucus that trap them before entering our breathing system
Cilia as a defence system
If the pathogen enters the nose/breathing system
The trachea and bronchi lined with hairs called cilia
Covered in mucus to trap pathogen then waft it to throat
Which swallows it to stomach
Stomach as a defence system
Contains HCl
To kill pathogens before they get further into digestive system
Why do we have an immune system AND a non specific defence system
Because sometimes the non specific defence system doesn’t stop the pathogen entering our systems
So we need a system to fight them once we are infected
