Viruses, fungi, parasites 8.2 Flashcards
What are Viruses?
1/100 size of bacteria
Non-living - do not use nutrients from environment or produce any waste
Must enter and hijack a host cell to reproduce
Human viruses include colds, influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chicken pox and herpes
What are Colds?
Disease caused by family of viruses called rhinoviruses
-Sneezing, contain thousands viral particles, can cause infection
-Infects cells of nose and throat
-Inflammation and extra mucus produced makes breathing difficult
How can Colds be reduced?
-Cover mouth when sneezing coughing
-Frequent hand washing
-Not sharing items, drink bottles
-Avoid contact with sick people
-Remain quarantine when sick
What is Flu?
-Spread same way as cold
-Caused by influenza A,B,C, symptoms are more severe
-Flu causes high fever and body aches
-For infants and elderly, they are immunosuppressed and flu can be fatal
What are Measles? (childhood diseases)
-Viral pathogen spread by coughing and sneezing
-Days after infection, red rash develops
-Vaccinated against in Australia reduced their occurrence
-When unvaccinated, immunosuppressed like elderly and infants are most at risk and aboriginal populations
What is Chicken Pox? (Childhood diseases)
-Viral disease begins with a runny nose and fever
-Itchy red blisters develop, if scratched can cause permanent scarring and secondary bacterial infections.
Why doesn’t antibiotics work for viruses?
-They don’t have a cell wall
-Secondary infections (bronchitis and pneumonia) can be caused by bacteria
-Immunity to influenza is not effective as in bacterial and other viral infections. You can get the flu multiple times
-New flu vaccines are released every year
What are Antiviral Drugs?
-Viral partials are difficult to target with medication
-antiviral drugs act to prevent viruses from reproducing inside a host cell
-viruses not yet have antiviral drugs in circulation, like Ebola.
What are Nanomedicine?
-Experimental line of antiviral drugs
-Nano traps emulate receptors of the host cell and collect viral particles
-Enzymes disrupt virus reproduction
What is Parasite?
-An organism that lives on or inside of a host organism
-feed off the host organism, and may harm them in the process
-Many parasites can cause disease.
What is Malaria?
-Plasmodium is a single celled Protist organism causes malaria
-parasite cannot infect new hosts on its own, relies on a vector – mosquitoes
How to prevent Malaria?
-Wear protective clothing
-Wear insect repellent
-Use mosquito netting
-Remove free-standing water
-Anti-malarial drugs, reduce the risk of contracting malaria.
What is Amoebic Dysentery?
-Caused by contaminated water pathogenic amoebae
-When ingested, the parasite infects the host causing bloody stool, diarrhea, fever and in severe cases death
-often treated with antibiotics.
What is Fungi?
-small number of fungal species are pathogenic
-Reproduce by producing SPORES, they disperse into the environment, can attach to human skin and cause infection
How can fungal infections be spread?
-Skin to skin contact
-Sharing towels, clothing, gym equipment
-Walk on contaminated floors barefoot
