topic 5 - health, disease, and the development of medicines Flashcards
What is the meaning of health?
A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not mainly the absence of disease or infirmity, as defined by the world health organisation
What’s the differences between communicable and noncommunicable diseases?
Communicable diseases of diseases that can be spread between individuals
Noncommunicable diseases can’t be transmitted between individual individuals. They include things like cancer and heart disease.
What is the presence of one disease lead to a higher susceptibility to other diseases?
Your body may become weakened by the disease, so it’s less able to fight off others
What are pathogens?
An organism such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protests that cause communicable diseases
What is the pathogen and symptoms for cholera?
Bacterium
Diarrhoea
What is the pathogen and symptoms for tuberculosis ?
Bacteria
Coughing and lung damage
What is the pathogen and symptoms for Chalara ash dieback
Fungi
Leaf loss and bark lesions
What is the pathogen and symptoms for malaria ?
Protists
Cause damage to blood and liver
What is the pathogen and symptoms for HIV?
Virus
Destroys white blood cells, leading to the onset of aids
How does cholera spread and how can it be reduced?
Spread by contaminated water sources
Making sure people have access to clean water supplies
How is tuberculosis spread and how can it be reduced?
Through the air when infected individuals cough (airborne)
Infected people should avoid crowded public spaces, practice good hygiene and sleep alone. The home should also be well ventilated.
How can Chalara ash dieback be spread and be reduced?
It’s an airborne disease that is carried through the air by wind
Removing young, infected ash trees and replanting with different species
or restricting the import or movement of ash trees
How is malaria spread and what can be due to reduce it?
Spread by animal vectors – they pass on the protest to humans but don’t get the disease themselves
Use of mosquito nets and insect repellent to prevent mosquitoes carrying the pathogen from biting people
How is chlamydia spread and how can it be reduced?
Is a type of bacterium which can only reproduce in host cells
It can cause infertility
The spread of chlamydia can be reduced by wearing a condom, screening individual so that they can be treated for the infection, avoiding sexual contact
How can HIV be spread and reduced?
HIV effects and kills white blood cells which are important in immune response
HIV infection eventually leads to AIDS
Aid to when the infected person’s immune system deteriorates and eventually fails
HIV can be spread through bodily fluids
a way to protect yourself from HIV is wearing a condom when having sex and drug users should also avoid sharing needles
Medication can also reduce the risk of an infected individual passing the virus onto others during sex
What do viruses do?
In fact, living cells called host cells in order to reproduce
What are the physical barriers in the human body?
Mucus – trap part particles that could contain pathogens
Cilia – hair like structures which wafted the mucus up to the back of the throat where it can be swallowed
Skin – blood clots quickly seal cut and keep microorganisms out
What are chemical defences in the human body?
Lysozymes - produced by the eyes which kills bacteria on the surface of the eye
Hydrochloric acid – the stomach produce produces hydrochloric acid which kills most pathogens that are swallowed
What is the role of the specific immune system of the human body in defence against disease?
Every pathogen has a unique molecules on its surface called antigens
When your B lymphocytes come across an antigen on a pathogen, they start to produce proteins called antibodies. Antibodies bind to the new invading pathogen, so it can be found and destroyed by other white blood cells. The antibodies produced a specific to that pathogen – they won’t lock onto any other pathogens. The antibodies are then produced rapidly and flow all round the body to find similar pathogens .
How do memory lymphocytes work in the defence against disease in the human body?
Memory lymphocytes remain in the body for a long time and remember a specific antigen
The person is not immune – the immune system has the ability to respond quickly to a second infection
If the same pathogen enters the body again, there are more cells that will recognise it and produce antibodies against it. This secondary immune response is faster and stronger.
What is the body’s response to immunisation using an inactive form of a pathogen?
These antigens injected into their body trigger memory lymphocytes to be made
if life pathogens of the same type get into the body, they will already be memory lymphocytes that can cause a fast secondary immune response, meaning you’re less likely to get the disease
Why can antibiotics only be used to treat bacterial infections?
Antibiotics work by inhibiting processes in bacterial cells, but not in the host organism
Different antibiotics kill different types of bacteria so it’s important to be treated with the right one
But antibiotics don’t destroy viruses. Viruses produce using your own body cells, which makes it very difficult to develop drugs that destroyed just the virus without killing the body cells.
What was the first antibiotic to be discovered?
Penicillin
It was discovered by Alexander Fleming when he was clearing out petri dishes containing bacteria
What is pre-clinical testing?
In pre-clinical testing drugs are first tested on human cells and tissues in the lab. However, you can’t use human cells and tissues to test drugs that affect hole or multiple body systems.
The next step is to test a drug on life animals. This is the test that the drug works to find out how toxic it is and the best dosage available.