Understanding Pathogens & Disease

 

What Are Pathogens?

• Pathogens are small organisms that cause disease. These tiny living things (like certain bacteria or viruses) that can make you sick.
• Think of them as uninvited guests who come into your home (your body) and cause trouble

 

What Is Disease?

• A disease happens when these pathogens cause harm inside your body, making you feel ill.
• Diseases can show up as symptoms like fever, cough, or feeling tired.

 

Transmissible Diseases

The disease is called transmissible if it can be passed from one host to another. Pathogens can be passed between different hosts so they are called transmissible diseases.

It’s like a rumor that jumps from friend to friend, except here, it’s a germ jumping from one body to another.

• Direct Contact:
  For example, when someone with germs on their hands touches you. Direct contact referes to transfer of body fluids, i.e semen or blood. Examples are gonorrhoea, HIV, etc

• Indirect Contact:
  From surfaces (like a doorknob), food, animals, or even through the air. These are called vectors or intermediate mediums.

 

Body Defenses

Your body isn’t helpless— it has defenses that act like security guards. These include:

 

Mechanical barriers 

These make it hard for the pathogens to get past them enter the body

• Skin: A tough outer barrier blocking many pathogens.
• Hairs in the Nose & Mucus: They trap germs before they get deeper.

 

Chemical barriers

These are substances that the body produces which can kill or trap pathogens before they travel further inside the body.

• Stomach Acid: A strong acid that kills many pathogens you swallow.

 

Cells

These are white blood cells that stop pathogens from getting to areas of the body that they can replicate in. They do this by 

• Phagocytosis: This is when pathogens are engulfed and digested.
• Producing antibodies: 

These defenses don’t always stop all pathogens, but they give your body a fighting chance