Communicable diseases

• Communicable diseases


  Diseases that can be spread from person to person
• Pathogens


  Bacteria or viruses that can spread communicable diseases
• Non-communicable diseases


  Diseases that cannot be passed from person to person
• Health


  The state of physical and mental well-being
• Ill health can be caused by communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, poor diet, high levels of stress, and other life situations
• People with a defective immune system

  Are much more likely to suffer from infectious diseases
• Infection with HPV


  Can cause cervical cancer
• Infection with a pathogen


  Can trigger an allergy such as asthma or dermatitis
• Physical illness like arthritis


  Can trigger a mental illness like depression
• Pathogen


  Microorganisms that cause infectious disease
• Types of pathogens


  • Bacteria
  • Viruses
  • Protists
  • Fungi
• Bacteria


  • Reproduce very rapidly under ideal conditions
  • Can divide every 20 minutes
  • Release harmful chemicals called toxins that damage tissues and make us feel ill
• Viruses


  • Cannot be produced by themselves
  • Can only reproduce inside a host cell
  • Invade host cell, reproduce inside, then cause the cell to burst open and die
• Ways pathogens are spread

  • Airborne (e.g. influenza)
  • Waterborne (e.g. cholera)
  • Direct contact (e.g. HIV)
• Reducing the spread of pathogens

  1. Practicing basic hygiene (e.g. handwashing)

  2. Providing clean drinking water

  3. Reducing direct contact between individuals (e.g. using condoms)

  4. Isolating highly infectious patients

  5. Vaccination
• Around 300,000 people in the UK get food poisoning from a type of bacteria every year
• Many bacterial diseases can kill us
• Viruses are very damaging to host cells, causing them to burst open and die
• Drinking water in the UK contains chlorine which kills microbes