Pathogens Flashcards
What are illnesses such as infections and food poisoning caused by?
Illnesses such as ear infections and food poisoning are caused by living things that are too small to see without a microscope.
Pathogens
Pathogens are organisms that cause disease
Infectious Diseases
Infectious Diseases are diseases cause by the presence of a living thing within the body and have caused harm.
How do pathogens make you sick?
Pathogens make you sick by damaging individual cells even though you may feel pain throughout your body.
What are the four major groups of human pathogens
bacteria, viruses, fungi and protists.
Bacteria- some facts are?
o One celled organisms
o Cause diseases such as ear infections, food poisoning and strep throat
o Some bacteria damage cells directly like cells in your throat for example.
o Other bacteria produce toxins that damages cells in your body. For example, the bacteria that causes tetanus produces a toxin that damages the nervous system.
Viruses - some facts are?
o Viruses are tiny particles much smaller than bacteria
o Viruses cannot reproduce unless they are inside living cells; the cells are damaged or destroyed in the process, release new viruses to infect other cells
o Colds and flu are caused by viruses that invade cells in the respiratory system.
o There are more than 200 kinds of cold viruses
Fungi - some facts are?
o Like mold and yeast also cause some infectious diseases.
o They grown best in warm, dark and moist areas
o Examples such as athlete’s foot and ringworm
Protists - some facts are?
o Eukaryotic organism that is neither considered an animal, plant, or fungus.
o Malaria is one example of a disease caused by a protist.
How are Pathogens spread?
- infected people
- Soil,food,water
- Contaminated objects
- Infected animals
Infected people - how do they spread by infected people.
o Pathogen pass from one person to another through direct physical contact
o Pathogens can also spread through indirect contact such as when a person sneezes, the pathogen is released into the air and can be inhaled by another person.
Soil, Food, and Water - How do pathogens spread through soil, food and water?
o Some pathogens occur naturally in the environment such as the bacteria that causes botulism.
o Some pathogens contaminate food and water. If people then eat food or drink water, they may become sick.
Contaminated objects - how are they spread through contaminated objects?
o Some pathogens can survive for a time outside a person’s body.
o People can also pick up pathogens by using objects, such as towels or silverware, that have been handled by an infected person.
o Colds and flu can be spread in this way. Tetanus bacteria can enter the body if a person steps on a contaminated nail for example.
Infected Animals - How do they spread from infected animals?
o If an animal is infected with certain pathogens and then bites a person, it can pass the pathogens to the person.
o People can get rabies, a serious disease that affects the nervous system, from the bite of an infected animal, such as a dog or a raccoon. Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are both spread by tick bites. The protist that causes malaria is transferred by the bites of mosquitoes that live in tropical regions
