| What are pathogens? | Microorganisms that can cause disease. |
| What are the different types of pathogens? | Viruses, bacteria, protists and fungi. |
| How do bacteria cause disease and damage your body? | By rapidly reproducing through binary fusion, and producing toxins. |
| How do viruses cause disease and damage your body? | By causing cell damage through rapidly reproducing inside bodily cells and bursting them. |
| How small are bacteria cells? | 1/100th the size of your body cells. |
| How small are viruses? | 1/100th the size of a bacterium. |
| How protists cause disease? | All protists are eukaryotes, and some are parasites.
the parasites live on or inside organisms and can cause damage. They're usually transferred by a vector. |
| How do fungi cause disease? | Some fungi are single-celled, other have a body made up of hyphae.
Hyphae can grow ad penetrate the skin and plants, causing disease or spores. |
| What is hyphae? | Thread-like structures that can grow and penetrate the skin or plants, casuing disease or spores. |
| What are different for pathogens to spread, and what are some examples? | Waterborne (cholera), airborne (influenza), direct contact (athletes foot). |
| What;
Is measles?
Pathogen causes measles?
Is it spread through?
Are the symptoms?
Can we do to prevent/ treat it? | Measles is a viral disease that can lead to pneumonia or encephalitis if serious.
It's caused by viruses.
It's spread through direct contact and droplet infection.
The symptoms are full body rashes, fevers, spots, coughing, and a runny nose.
It can be treated with ibuprophen, rest, or vaccinations. |
| What;
Is HIV?
Pathogen causes HIV?
Is it spread through?
Are the symptoms?
Can we do to prevent/ treat it? | HIV is a viral disease that attacks the immune cells - which can lead to AIDS.
It's caused by viruses.
Its spread through sexual contact, sharing bodily fluids or sharing needles.
The symptoms are fevers, infections, swelling.
It can be prevented by using condoms and don't touch bodily fluids or share needles. |
| What;
Is tobacco mosaic virus?
Pathogen causes tobacco mosaic virus?
Is it spread through?
Are the symptoms?
Can we do to prevent/ treat it? | Tobacco mosaic virus is a viral disease that affects plants, by discolouring the leaves and affecting photosynthesis.
It's caused by viruses.
It's spread by infected tools or leaves rub onto another leaf.
The symptoms are mottling, leaf curling, mosaic patterns, discoloring, and stunting.
It can be prevented by cleaning tools after use and quarantining. |
| What;
Is rose black spot?
Pathogen causes rose black spot?
Is it spread through?
Are the symptoms?
Can we do to prevent/ treat it? | Rose black spot is a fungal disease that affects plants, by discolouring the leaves and affecting photosynthesis..
It's caused by fungi.
It's spread waterborne (spores).
The symptoms are leaves turn yellow or fall, purple/ black patches.
It can be prevented with fungicides. |
| What;
Is malaria?
Pathogen causes malaria?
Is it spread through?
Are the symptoms?
Can we do to prevent/ treat it? | Malaria is a disease that can be fatal.
It's caused by protists.
It can be spread through vectors.
The symptoms are fevers, chills, irritability, sweating, drowsiness.
Insecticides, mosquitos nets and anti-malarial drugs. |
| What;
Is salmonella?
Pathogen causes salmonella?
Is it spread through?
Are the symptoms?
Can we do to prevent/ treat it? | Salmonella is a bacterial disease that causes food poisoning.
It's caused by bacteria from contaminated food
It's spread through the consumption of contaminated food.
The symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, nausea and fevers.
It can be prevented through cleaning surfaces and washing hands and can be treated with antibiotics and painkillers. |
| What;
Is gonorrhoea?
Pathogen causes gonorrhoea?
Is it spread through?
Are the symptoms?
Can we do to prevent/ treat it? | Gonorrhoea is a STD.
It's caused by bacteria.
It can be spread through sexual contact.
The symptoms are pain during urination, yellow/ green discharge and painful intercourse.
It can be prevented with contraception, and can be treated with antibiotics. |
| What are some ways that you can prevent the spread of pathogens? | Being hygienic (washing hands and cleaning surfaces).
Destroying vectors (insecticides or destroying habitats).
Isolating infected individuals (preventing them from passing it on).
Vaccinations (preventing humans and animals from developing an infections and passing it on). |
| How is salmonella prevented in the UK? | Most poultry (chickens and turkeys) are vaccinated to control the spread of disease. |
| How does the skin work as the first line of defence? | It acts as a barrier to pathogens.
It also secretes antimicrobial substances that kill pathogens. |
| How do hairs and mucus work as the first line of defence? | Hairs and mucus trap particles that could contain pathogens. |
| How does cilia work as the first line of defence? | The hair-like structures waft the mucus up to the back of the throat to be swallowed. |
| How does the stomach work as first line of defence? | It produces hydrochloric acid which kills pathogens. |
| How does your immune system work as the second line of defense? | White blood cells create phagocytes that engulf pathogens. This is called phagocytosis.
B-lymphocytes produce memory cells, they also make antibodies that have a complementary shape to antigens. They bind onto them so they can be found and destroyed.
T-lymphocytes kill infected or cancerous cells and can co-ordinate B-lymphocytes.
Lymphocytes also produce antitoxins that neutralize toxins produced by bacteria. |
| What is a vaccine? | A dead or inactive pathogen cell that stimulates your immune system. This makes your white blood cells produce antibodies and memory cells so you can have immunity and rapidly reproduce antibodies. |
| What are two pros of vaccines? | They help to control communicable diseases that were once common like measles.
Epidemics can be prevented if a large percentage of a population is vaccinated (herd immunity). This is because people who aren't vaccinated are unlikely to catch the disease. |
| What are two cons of vaccines? | They dont always work or give you immunity.
Sometimes you can have a bad reaction to the vaccine like swelling, fevers or seizures. |
| What is a painkiller? | A drug that relieves pain by reducing the symptoms. |
| What are antibioticcs? | Drugs that kill or prevent the growth of bacteria. |
| Why don't antibiotics affect viruses? | Because they reproduce inside bodily cells, making it difficult to kill the virus without damaging the cell. |
| What is antibiotic resistance? | When bacteria randomly mutates and becomes resistant to an antibiotic, meaning it doesn't kill it. |
| What does aspirin do and what plant does it come from? | It's a painkiller for fevers and it comes from willow. |
| What does digitalis do and what plant does it come from? | It treats heart conditions and it comes from foxgloves. |
| What does penicillin do and what plant does it come from? | It's an antibiotic and it comes from mould. |
| Who found penicillin, when and how? | Alexander Flemming found penicillin in his petri dish in 1928. He found that the mould (penicillium notatum) was producing a substance that killed bacteria. |
| How are drugs made nowadays? | In labs. |
| What are the three main stages of drug testing? | Preclinical testing, animal clinical trials and human clinical trials. |
| What is preclinical testing? | This is where drugs are tested on human cells and tissues. This usually takes |
| What are animal clinical trials? | This is where the drug is tested on live animals.
This tests the efficacy and dosage. |
| What is efficacy? | The effectiveness of the drug against the disease. |
| What is dosage? | How much of a drug someone should receives so that it works the best. |
| What is toxicity? | Harmful side effects. |
| What are human clinical trials? | This is where the drug is tested on healthy volunteers to see if there are any harmful side effects. This measures its toxicity.
Then it's used to find out the optimum dosage.
Then the blind trials where patients are either given a placebo or the real drug. Neither the patient nor the doctor knows whether they are getting the real drug, allowing the placebo effect. This measures its efficacy. |
| What is a placebo? | A substance like the drug, however it does nothing. |
| What is the placebo effect? | When the patient thinks they are receiving the real drug and feels better after taking the treatment, even though it's not doing anything. |
| What happens after human clinical trials? | Peer review. This helps prevent bias and false claims. |
