B6 Preventing And Treating Disease

Question 1

Discovery of drugs

Answer 1

Discovering drugs:

1. Thousands of drugs are made that have the possibility of fighting a chosen disease.
2. These are then tested on efficiency and toxicity.
3. Most of the drugs fail at this point. The ones that proceed are tested on animals to see how they would behave.
4. They have now identified several drugs that are safe to test on humans and have the possibility of treating a disease.
5. These drugs are now tested on healthy humans and patients to see if there are any side effects.
6. If all the clinical testing goes well and the legal requirements are met the drugs and be prescribed to patients.

Question 2

Placebo

Answer 2

One half of the people in a trail are given the drug, one half get a ‘dummy’ (eg. a sugar pill).

Question 3

Herd immunity

Answer 3

If a large proportion of the population is immune to a disease, the spread of the pathogen in the population is very much reduced and the disease may even disappear.

Question 4

Vaccine

Answer 4

Dead or inactive pathogenic material used in vaccination to develop immunity to a disease in a healthy person.

Question 5

Active immunisation

Answer 5

This is called ‘active immunisation because your blood cells have to activity produce the right blood cells.

Question 6

Passive immunisation

Answer 6

Passive immunisation is when you are injected with antibodies. These are able to deal with the pathogens but it only lasts for a couple months

Question 7

Toxicity

Answer 7

Whether the drug has any poisonous side effects.

Question 8

Efficacy

Answer 8

How effective a drug is.

Question 9

Dosage

Answer 9

The strength of the drug that should be administered