year nine - medicine and disease

• Pathogens

  Microorganisms that cause disease
• Microorganism

  An organism that is too small to be seen with the naked eye
• Communicable diseases

  Diseases caused by pathogens that are passed from one person to another
• Non-communicable diseases

  Diseases that cannot be passed from one person to another
• Factors that can affect health (apart from disease)

  • Lifestyle
  • Life experience
  • Genetic disposition
• Where bacteria and viruses reproduce

  Inside your body
• Where viruses live and reproduce

  Inside your cells
• Viral diseases

  • AIDS/HIV
  • Measles
  • Tobacco Mosaic Virus
• Initial symptoms of HIV

  A flu-like illness
• Part of the body HIV affects

  The immune system
• How HIV is spread

  By sexual contact or exchange of body fluids
• How HIV is prevented

  Using condoms, not sharing needles
• Why bacteria make you feel ill

  They produce toxins
• Toxin

  A poison
• Bacterial diseases examples


  • Salmonella
  • Gonorrhoea
• Type of disease salmonella causes

  Food poisoning
• Symptoms of salmonella food poisoning

  Fever, abdominal cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea
• How salmonella food poisoning is prevented

  Cooking chicken well, and by vaccinating chickens
• Fungus

  An organism made of cells which are neither animal nor plant cells
• Fungal disease example:

  • Rose black spot
• Symptoms of rose black spot

  Purple or black spots on the leaves, which turn yellow and fall off early
• How rose black spot is spread

  By water or wind
• How rose black spot is prevented

  Use a fungicide or remove the infected leaves
• Protists


  A type of single celled organism
• What malaria causes

  Reoccurring episodes of fever and death
• Vector

  An animal that can carry a pathogen between infected individuals
• How the spread of malaria is controlled

  By preventing mosquitos from breeding and by using mosquito nets to avoid being bitten
• Painkillers

  Medicines that stop the pain from diseases
• Painkiller examples:

  • Aspirin and paracetamol
• Antibiotics


  Medicines that kill bacteria