Topic 4 Flashcards
What is a pathogen?
A disease-causing organism
What is a transmissible disease?
Pathogens passed on from one host to another.
What is direct contact?
Pathogen is passed on from host to host by transfer of bodily fluids (saliva, blood, semen)
What is indirect contact?
Pathogen leaves host and is carried in some way to another, uninfected individual
4 methods of transmission:
- Droplets in the air
- Food/Drink
- Touching contaminated surfaces
- Insect bites
3 ways the body defends itself?
- Mechanical barriers - skin, hairs in nose
- Chemical barriers - mucus, stomach acid
- Cells - phagocytosis, producing antibodies
4 ways to prevent the spread of disease?
- Hygienic food preparation
- Personal hygiene
- Waste disposal
- Sanitation
What is active immunity?
The production of antibodies and developing memory cells for future responses to infections.
State 2 ways active immunity can occur:
- Body has been infected with a pathogen, the lymphocyte makes the complimentary antibody to the antigen
- Vaccination
What are antigens?
Molecules, such as proteins, projecting from their cell membranes.
What is the role of antibodies?
Antibodies can attach to the antigens and cause agglutination (pathogenic cells cannot move around very easily) of pathogens. At the same time, chemicals are released that signal presence of pathogens to phagocytes.
What is immunity?
After an encounter with a pathogen, lymphocytes create memory cells, which retain the instructions for making the specific antibody.
What is a vaccine?
A weakened/altered form of the pathogen, containing specific antigens to be introduced into the body - cannot cause illness, but can stimulate an immune response
What is passive immunity?
Fast-acting, short-term defense against a pathogen by antibodies acquired from another individual. NO MEMORY CELLS MADE.
Process of cholera:
- Bacteria attach to the wall of the small intestine
- Produce a toxin, stimulating the cells lining the intestine to release chloride ions (Cl-) from inside the cells into the lumen of the intestine.
- Chloride ions accumulate in the lumen of the small intestine and lower the water potential
4.Once the water potential is lower in the lumen of the small intestine, water by osmosis starts to move out of the cells, into the intestine - therefore large quantities of water are lost from the body in watery faeces
How is cholera treated?
Oral rehydration therapy - drink with small amounts of solutes)
4 Features of gas exchange surfaces:
- Large surface area = faster diffusion
- Thin walls = to aid diffusion
- Good ventilation with air = so concentration gradient can be maintained
- Good blood supply = maintain high concentration gradient
What is the larynx (voice box)
When air passes, it is able to make noise.
What does the alveoli do?
Tiny air sacs where gaseous exchange take place.
What is the bronchus?
Large tubes branching off trachea.
What is the bronchiole?
Connect bronchus to alveoli.
What is the diaphragm?
Sheet of connective tissue and muscle at the bottom of the thorax that helps change the volume of the thorax to allow inhalation/exhalation.
What is the trachea?
Windpipe that connects the mouth and nose to the lungs - kept open by rings of cartilage.
What do the ribs do?
Bone structure that protects internal organs such as the lungs.