DPS

IGCSE-BIOLOGY

TOPIC: DISEASES AND IMMUNITY

BY MICHAEL SIR

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OBJECTIVES
• Understand what pathogens are.
• Understand what transmissible diseases are.
• State the ways pathogens can be transmitted.
• Describe the body defense systems.
• etc

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Pathogens
• Pathogens are disease causing organism.
• Many disease are caused by pathogens that enter into our bodies and
breed there. Examples are:
Pathogenic groups Examples of diseases which they cause

Viruses Influenza, common cold, poliomyelitis, measles,

AIDS.

Bacteria Cholera, syphilis, whooping cough, tuberculosis,

tetanus

Protoctists Malaria, amoebic dysentery

Fungi Athlete’s foot, ringworm

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Transmissible diseases
• Transmissible diseases: this is a disease that can be passed on from one host to
another.
• Host: this an organism in which a pathogen lives and reproduce.
• When a pathogen gets inside the body systems, some pathogens damage our
living cells by living in them and using the resources.
• Other pathogens harm the cells by producing waste products, called toxins,
which spreads around the body and cause symptoms such as high temperature,
rashes and make you feel ill etc.
• Toxin is a poisonous substance or chemical that damages cells.
• Symptoms are the signs shown when we have a disease or affected by an illness.
• Infection: this is the entry of pathogens into the body/host.
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Types of pathogen transmission
• Direct contact: through blood and other body fluid.
• Example AIDS, Athlete foot.
• Indirect contact: not having direct contact with a person with the
pathogen.
Examples:
• breathing in droplet containing pathogens.
• touching a surface that someone with pathogen has touched.
• eating food or drinking water that contains pathogens.
• contact with animals that contains pathogens.
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Controlling the spread of diseases
• A clean water supply
• Food hygiene
• Personal hygiene
• Waste disposal
• Sewage treatment

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 Cholera

• Cholera is a serious transmissible disease caused by bacterium.

• It can be spread through food and water that has been contaminated
with faeces from an infected person.
• Living in unhygienic environment can lead to the rapid spread of
cholera.

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How cholera bacteria works
 Cholera bacteria live and breed in the small
intestine.

 The bacteria produces toxin(poison) that

stimulates the lining of the intestine to secrete
chloride ions.

 The chloride ions accumulate in the lumen of the

small intestines. This increases the
concentration of fluid in the lumen (small
intestine), lowering its water potential.

 Water from the blood flowing through the walls

of the intestine(lumen), moves from the blood
into the lumen of the intestines by osmosis.
 This eventually causes diarrhoea.

 Diarrhoea: a condition in which faeces are

discharged from the bowels frequently and in
a liquid form.
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Cholera

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Body defense
• Mucus: traps bacteria in the air we breath then they are swept up to
the back of the throat and swallowed.
• Hairs in the nose: it helps to filter out particles from the air, which
could contain pathogens.
• Skin: prevents pathogens from entering the body. If the skin is broken,
blood clot forms to seal the wound and stop pathogens getting in.
• Stomach acid: it contains hydrochloric acid which kills a lot of the
bacteria in our food.
• White blood cells…

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The immune response
• Antibodies: this is a protein molecule produced by white blood cells
which binds to pathogen molecules called antigens and destroys
them. An antibody molecule has a shapes that is complementary to
its specific antigen.
• Antigens: a substance that is foreign to the body and stimulates an
immune response.
• Each pathogen has its own specific shape.
• To bind/destroy a particular pathogen, antibody molecules must have
a shape complementary to the shape of the a antigens(pathogen
molecules).
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 Antibodies binding to antigens

• Immune response: this is the reaction of the body to produce antibodies due to
the presence antigens.

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Antibodies binding to antigens

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Memory cells
• When a pathogen enters the body it meets a large number of lymphocytes.
These lymphocytes recognizes the pathogens (antigens) as something its
antibody can destroy.
• This lymphocytes will start to divide rapidly by mitosis, making a
clone(copies of itself) lymphocytes. This takes time.
• It may take a while for the right lymphocyte to recognize the pathogens and
a few more days to make clones.
• During this period, the pathogens breeds in your body and this makes you
ill.

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 Memory cells
• The lymphocytes then secretes their antibody, destroying the pathogens.
• When a lymphocyte makes copies of it self (clones), not all of the new
cells make antibodies.
• Those that do not produce antibodies remains in the blood and other
parts of the body, living for a very long time. These are called memory
cells.
• If the same kind of pathogen enters your body again, these memory cells
will be ready and waiting for them. They will be able to make enough
antibodies quickly, to kill the pathogens before they have time to
produce a large population and do harm.
• The person has become immune to that type of pathogens.
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Memory cells

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Immune reponse (first & second infection)

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Vaccination
• Vaccine: is a harmless preparation of dead or inactive pathogens that
is injected into the body to induce an immune response.
• A vaccine may contain weakened or dead viruses or bacteria that
normally cause disease. Some vaccines don’t contain complete
viruses or bacteria, but only their antigens.
• The idea behind vaccination or giving people vaccine is to immunize
them against diseases caused by pathogens.

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How vaccination works
• When weakened or dead pathogens or their antigens are introduced
into the body, they are recognized by lymphocyte.
• Lymphocyte then form clones and produce antibodies with
complementary shape as the vaccine components to destroy them.
• They also make memory cells which gives long term immunity.
• So if a ‘normal’ viruses or bacteria get into the body one day, they will
be attacked and destroyed immediately.

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Double vaccination
• Some diseases require two vaccinations to provide a really good, long
lasting immunity.
• After the first dose, the body makes enough antibodies and memory
cells to provide partial protection against pathogen.
• A second vaccination given a few weeks afterwards, sometimes called
a booster, stimulates the lymphocytes and memory cells to make
even more antibodies and even more memory cells.

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Active and Passive immunity
• Active immunity: it is a long-term defence against a pathogen by
antibody production in the body.
• A person has active immunity to a disease if their body has made its
own antibodies and memory cells that protect against that disease.
• This memory cells can last in the body for so many years.
• You can develop active immunity by:
1. having the disease and recovering from it.
2. being vaccinated.

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Passive immunity
• Passive immunity: it is a short-term defence against a pathogen by antibody
acquired from another individual, such as from mother to infant.
• A person has passive immunity to a disease if they have been given ready-
made antibodies that have been made by another organism.
• Examples of how we can get passive immunity
• Babies get passive immunity across the placenta in the mother’s womb and
by breast feeding. Breast milk contains antibodies from the mother, which are
passed on to her baby.
• This is useful because a young baby’s immune system is not well developed,
and so the mother’s antibodies can protect it against any disease to which she
is immune, for the first few months of its life.
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Cont’d
• Passive immunity can also be gotten by injecting the antibodies that has been
made by another organism.
• For example a person bitten by an animal with rabies can be injected with
antibodies against rabies.
• These destroys the virus immediately, whereas waiting for the body make its
own antibodies will take too long and the person is unlikely to recover.
NOTE THAT:
• Passive immunity last for a short time because the antibodies acquired will
eventually break down.
• No lymphocyte has been stimulated to make clones of themselves. The body
has not made memory cells, so any infection will be treated as a first time.
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Controlling diseases by vaccination
• Vaccination of a high percentage of a population helps to stop the
spread of disease, because there are only a few unvaccinated hosts in
which a pathogen can reproduce.
• Vaccination for smallpox
• Vaccination for measles
• Vaccination for poliomyelitis (polio for short)
• Vaccination for Covid-19 and learning about covid-19

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 Covid-19
• In December 2019, a new infection was detected. Scientist discovered that
the pathogen that caused it was a new virus, which they named SARS-CoV-
2. This stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.
• Coronaviruses are spherical viruses, with protein spikes sticking out. These
spikes helps the virus to attach to human cells.
• We already live with many different coronaviruses, which cause colds and
flu. But this one is different – the illness it causes can often be very severe,
and even fatal.
• The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been named Covid-19. You may like
to try out what the letters and number in that name refer to.

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 Learning about Covid-19
• The virus is very easily transmitted from one person to another. It can be
passed on in droplets, when a person coughs, sneezes or talks.
• It can remain on a surface such a door handles for several days and then gets
into the respiratory system if they touch the surface and then their mouth.
• Because the virus spreads so easily, it quickly cause a pandemic ( a disease
that is present all over the world.
• The virus can be transmitted from a person who does not have the
symptoms. People can be completely unaware that they could be passing the
virus on.
• The virus cause mild symptoms in most people. But in others, the lungs can
be so baldy affected that the person has great difficulty breathing. Even with
excellent medical treatment, some of these people die.
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 DELTA VARIANT
• A new and increasingly dangerous variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is rapidly sweeping across the globe. This new variant appears to spread faster, cause
more severe disease and is more likely to result in hospitalization.
• Also, younger people appear to be more susceptible to the new strain, known as the Delta variant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
• But the good news is that the existing vaccines now available to everyone over the age of 12 have proven to be highly effective in preventing the Delta
variant as well as other versions of COVID-19.
• "We know that vaccines work," said Dr. Margaret Ryan, medical director of the Defense Health Agency's Immunization Healthcare Division.
• Currently, there are three vaccines authorized for use by the Food and Drug Administration for COVID-19: The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines require
two doses, and J&J/Janssen is a one-dose vaccine.
• The Delta variant is spreading quickly and will likely soon become the dominant strain within the United States.
• It's a wake-up call for those people who think that they don't need to get a vaccine because they've successfully avoided the COVID-19 disease so far. It may
be very difficult to escape the new Delta variant in the coming months without getting the shot, doctors say.
• The Delta variant currently accounts for 20.6 percent of sequenced cases in the U.S., and that number is expected to multiply, especially in regions and
among populations with low COVID-19 vaccination rates.
• The number of sequenced cases of the Delta variant has roughly doubled every two weeks, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden,
told a June 22 White House media briefing. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health.
• The mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna have been described as having at least 88 percent efficacy against the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, Ryan
said.
• "But we should not focus too hard on efficacy numbers," she suggested. "All available COVID-19 vaccines have shown strong real-world effectiveness at
preventing severe disease by all COVID-19 variants. The most important message is that vaccination saves lives."
• Vaccination is also important to prevent new, possibly worse, variants of the virus from appearing, Ryan said. "Every person who gets infected with SARS-
CoV-2 allows the virus to replicate, or copy itself, up to one billion times. Every time the virus copies itself, there is a chance for a new variant to appear. We
prevent variants from appearing by preventing human infections. We prevent human infections by vaccination," she said.
• Because of the Delta variant, “Everyone in the U.S. who is at least 12 years old should be fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible," Ryan
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