The Body’s Response To Illness And Injury

Question 1

What are the most common cause of illness?

Answer 1

Viral and bacterial infections

Question 2

How does cancer occur?

Answer 2

When cells in part of the body begin to grow out of control and replace normal tissue

Question 3

What do genes do?

Answer 3

carry inherited information about how to make the proteins we need to grow, function properly and stay healthy

Question 4

example of an illness caused by faulty genes?

Answer 4

Haemophilia

Question 5

What is haemophilia ?

Answer 5

Where blood doesn’t clot properly. The faulty genes with haemophilia mean that they don’t have enough special clotting proteins and are at risk if they cut or bruise them self

Question 6

Why does the system ask if the person has a bleeding or clotting problem?

Answer 6

Because they often need more urgent treatment than those whose blood clots normally

Question 7

What is an acute illness?

Answer 7

An illness that starts suddenly and are short lived and the person recovers relatively quickly

Question 8

What is a chronic illness?

Answer 8

Persists over a long period of time. The symptoms appear gradually get worse despite treatment or change very slowly

Question 9

What is an injury? ( Trauma)

Answer 9

When the body has been hurt

Question 10

What is a penetrating injury?

Answer 10

Where there is a break in the skin or other body surface

Question 11

What is an example of a penetrating injury ?

Answer 11

An accidental cut or a deliberate stab wound

Question 12

What is a blunt injury?

Answer 12

Where the skin of other body surface has not been broken but damage has still occurred.

Question 13

Example of a blunt injury?

Answer 13

A bruise

Question 14

how would you notice a penetrating injury?

Answer 14

Visible bleeding and increased risks of germs getting in and causing infection

Question 15

How to notice a blunt injury?

Answer 15

No visible external bleeding but may be swelling, bruising and internal damage to joints muscles or internal organs

Question 16

What is an example of a major burn?

Answer 16

Those involving a large area of skin, any burn to the face with soot or swelling around the nose or mouth or inhalation of hot fumes or gases

Question 17

How to identify MAJOR burn? Think wrap around

Answer 17

Any burn that goes right around the body or right around a limb

Question 18

What is a major wound?

Answer 18

Gun shot
Stab
Very large deep wounds which may have caused internal damaged as well as surface wounds or an amputation

Question 19

Other examples of life threatening injuries?

Answer 19

• injuries caused by road traffic collisions
• injuries caused by serious assault
• suffocation and strangulation
• near drowning
• a fall from a height
• suicide attempts

Question 20

How does the body heal itself?

Answer 20

blood clotting and inflammation

Question 21

What are platelets ?

Answer 21

structured within the blood that are important for blood clotting. When there is damage to part of the body a chemical protein inside platelets causes them to become sticky. This helps them combine with other substances to form a clot, which basically plugs the hole and stops bleeding, the clot later dries out to become a scab that helps to stop germs entering and then new skin forms underneath

Question 22

Why do some people have faulty blood clotting mechanisms?

Answer 22

faulty genes to particular medicines. some disorders mean that the blood can be too prone to clotting where as some may mean blood doesn’t clot properly such as haemophilia.

Question 23

what might someone need if there blood clots too easily ?

Answer 23

Anti- coagulant drugs which makes the blood less prone to clotting. If someone has been injured it can take longer for the bleeding to stop if they have a problem with clotting or they take anti-coagulant drugs meaning that more urgent treatment may be required

Question 24

When does the inflammatory response occur?

Answer 24

When tissues are injured for example by germs, injury, heat or poisons. Chemicals are released by the damaged tissue and these chemicals cause blood vessels to leak fluid into the tissues causing swelling.

Question 25

what happens when the inflammatory response occurs?

Answer 25

Chemical called histamine is released. This reaction helps to isolate the harmful substance. The chemicals also attract white blood cells that eat germs, dead or damaged cells. All of this activity often makes the area swell up and become warmer than the surrounding area. As the body fights the problem and deals with the damage, pus is often formed from a collection of dead tissue, dead germs and white blood cells. This pus then can form a swelling underneath the skin (boil or abscess) and then finds an opening on the surface and discharges onto the skin. As everything settled down, the swelling goes and the inflammation disappears

Question 26

What is a fever ?

Answer 26

Fever or a raised temperature occurs When the body’s thermostat inside the brain raises the body temperature above its normal level.

Question 27

What is normal body temp?

Answer 27

37 degrees Celsius

Question 28

What does the body’s thermostat do?

Answer 28

Knows what temperature the body should be and sends messages around the body to keep it away

Question 29

Why does the thermostat sometimes reset the body to a higher temperature?

Answer 29

In response to infection or inflammation. It is thought that this is the body’s way of fighting the germs that cause infections

Question 30

Fever is not an illness but a sign of what?

Answer 30

An underlying problem

Question 31

What are the symptoms of a fever ?

Answer 31

Sweating, chills, skin hot to touch

Question 32

What is a rigor?

Answer 32

A high temperature is also often associated with aches and pains and a headache and the person may have a flushed face and occasionally violent shivering it the temperature is very high or rises very quickly

Question 33

Why does a rigor happen ?

Answer 33

A rigor happens because the body’s muscles are shivering very hard in an attempt to raise body temperature to the new level set by the thermostat

Question 34

Are rigor shivers normal shivers ?

Answer 34

No may be so strong the person might even notice their bed or chair shake when the rigor comes on

Question 35

What do antibiotics do?

Answer 35

Sometimes lifesaving medicines used to treat bacterial illnesses. Although they kill bacteria they have no effect on human cells or viruses. Viruses don’t have the same machinery that bacteria do

Question 36

What is a problem with antibiotics ?

Answer 36

Lose effectiveness if over used. Antibiotics usually kill their target bacteria in a week or 10 days but usually people feel better in a day or 2 because majority of bacteria is killed quickly.

Question 37

Why is it important that antibiotics are only used when necessary?

Answer 37

To reduce the risk of resistance

Question 38

What is another problem with antibiotics ?

Answer 38

They kill the good bacteria in our bodies that help us stay healthy. This is how we sometimes get diarrhoea after antibiotic treatment for a sever sore throat or chest infection