Communicable Disease - Topic 3 Flashcards
What are pathogens?
Microorganisms that enter the body and cause disease.
What type of disease do pathogens cause?
Communicable diseases - diseases that can easily spread.
Which of these are infected by pathogens, plants, animals, or both?
Both.
What are bacteria and what can they do?
They are very small cells which can reproduce rapidly inside your body.
How can bacteria make you feel ill?
By producing toxins (poisons) that damage your cells and tissues.
How much smaller are viruses from bacterium?
about 1/100th the size.
What is a similarity in viruses and bacterium in regards to their ability to reproduce inside the body?
They can reproduce rapidly inside your body.
How to viruses operate in their reproduction?
They live inside your cells and replicate themselves using the cells’ machinery to produce many copies of themselves. The cell will usually then burst, releasing all the new viruses.
What makes you feel ill in terms of the effect that viruses cause when reproducing?
Cell damage (from the cell bursting).
What are protists?
Eukaryotes and most of them are single-celled.
What are some protists?
Parasites.
What do parasites do?
Parasites live on or inside other organisms and can cause them damage. They are often transferred to the organism by a vector, which doesn’t get the disease itself.
What can fungi be?
Some are single-celled. Others have a body which is made up of hyphae (thread-like structure).
What fungi with hyphae do and cause as a result?
Grow and penetrate human skin and the surface of plants, causing diseases. Can also produce spores, which can be spread to other plants and animals.
Give three examples of ways pathogens can be spread.
- Water - by drinking or bathing in dirty water. E.g. cholera is a bacterial infection that’s spread by drinking water contaminated with the diarrhoea of other sufferers.
- Air - carried by air and then can be breathed in. Some airborne pathogens are carried in the air in droplets produced when you cough or sneeze - e.g. the influenza virus that causes flu is spread this way.
- Direct Contact - by touching contaminated surfaces, including the skin. E.g. athlete’s foot is a fungus which makes skin itch and flake off. It’s most commonly spread by touching the same things as an infected person, e.g. shower floors and towels.
