Scribd
Upload
4 views

Defence Mechanism Edited

The document discusses the human immune system's defense mechanisms against pathogens like viruses and bacteria. It describes the two lines of immune defense - physical and chemical barriers that try to prevent pathogens from entering the body, and if pathogens get past these, they are attacked by white blood cells. The main white blood cell types - phagocytes, B-cells, T-cells and natural killer cells - and how they recognize and destroy pathogens are summarized. The document also briefly discusses vaccination, herd immunity, antibiotics, and culturing microorganisms.

Uploaded by

Aiden Yio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
4 views

Defence Mechanism Edited

The document discusses the human immune system's defense mechanisms against pathogens like viruses and bacteria. It describes the two lines of immune defense - physical and chemical barriers that try to prevent pathogens from entering the body, and if pathogens get past these, they are attacked by white blood cells. The main white blood cell types - phagocytes, B-cells, T-cells and natural killer cells - and how they recognize and destroy pathogens are summarized. The document also briefly discusses vaccination, herd immunity, antibiotics, and culturing microorganisms.

Uploaded by

Aiden Yio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 38

DEFENCE MECHANISM

Pathogens are microorganisms that cause


diseases. They could be virus, bacteria.
There are many ways on how pathogens can
spread from one person to another. The
more pathogens that enter your body, the
more likely it is you will get infectious
disease.
Second Line of Immune Defense
If a pathogen makes it past the first line of defense,
they will meet your second line of defense – the white
blood cells. There are ways in which your white blood
cell destroy pathogens.

Phagocyotosis
A specific antibody is made
by plasma cells to fight a
specific antigen. An
antibody binds to an antigen
like a lock and key. So only
an antibody made against a
specific antigen can bind to
it, much like a key can only
open a specific lock. When
this happens, white blood
cells can find and destroy
the substance that is causing
an infection or disease.
Killer – kill the cell
by damaging the cell
membrane

T-cells
Helper – stimulate
b-cells to produce
antibodies and
stimulates
phagocytes to engulf
Lymphocytes any cells carrying
antibodies.

Can become memory


B-cells b cells and plasma
cells.
This type of immunity is called as active immunity,
whereby our body produces it own antibody.

Passive immunity is provided when a person is given


antibodies to a disease rather than producing them
through his or her own immune system.
Sign and symptoms
Chronic or persistent fever
Severe diarrhoea lasting for months
Pneumonia
Cancer of the blood vessel (Kaposi;s sarcoma)
Brain infection
Tuberculosis (a lung disease)
Prevention and control
Keep to one sex partner or keep abstinence
Use condoms to prevent the exchange of fluid.
Avoid sharing needles/use a sterilized needle
MALARIA
PREVENTION & TREATMENT OF MALARIA
Preventing malaria is best accomplished by mosquito
control, use of both skin and clothing insect
repellents, wearing long-sleeve shirts, long pants and
shoes and using pre-exposure antimalarial drugs when
traveling to parts of the world where malaria is a risk.
Treatment
Vaccination
Herd Immunity
What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity, also known as ‘population immunity’, is
when a high percentage of people in the community is
immune to a certain disease. This makes the spread of
disease from person to person unlikely. Herd immunity
is achieved through vaccination and/or prior illness with
that particular disease.
Using Drugs to Treat Disease
Often medicine doesn’t affect the pathogen that is
causing the problems – it just eases the symptoms and
makes you feel better like aspirin and paracetamol are
very useful as painkillers. However, there are
medicines that can kill bacteria. These are antibiotics.
Unfortunately, antibiotics have no effect on viruses.
The problem with viral pathogens is that they
reproduce inside the cells in your body. It is extremely
difficult to develop drugs that kill the viruses without
damaging the cells and tissues of your body at the
same time.
Changing Pathogens
Growing and Investigating Bacteria
To find out more about microorganisms, you need to
culture them. This means you grow very large numbers
of them so that you can see all the bacteria as a whole.
Scientists can find out what nutrients microorganisms
need for growth and can investigate which chemicals are
best at killing them.
Growing Microorganisms in the Lab
To culture (grow) microorganisms, we must give them
a liquid or a gel containing nutrients – a culutre
medium.
This contains carbohydrate as energy source, various
minerals, a nitrogen source so they can make proteins.
They also need warmth and oxygen to grow.
We usually provide the nutrients in agar jelly. Hot agar
containing all the nutrients is poured into a petri dish
and left to cool before bacteria is added.

You might also like