Pathogens Listening Videos
Write the following words on a piece of paper; pathogen, diseases, body, cell, host, enter. Listen for plural and singular forms of these words and make a mark for each time you hear the word.
A pathogen is typically used to refer to a microorganism that can cause disease which in its turn can spread to one person to another. In daily language pathogens are usually referred to as germs. In short pathogens are foreign infectious microbes that cause sickness and disease.
Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa are the most common types of pathogens and each effects the body in different ways.
Pathogens can enter the host through the nose, mouth, eyes, or through a cut or any other opening in the body.
1. Bacteria
In the case of bacteria once it enters the body it releases toxins that make the host ill.
2. Viruses on the other hand enter into individual cells of the hosts body and then hijack these cells. More specifically their replication system and this in turn forces them to produce a multitude of copies of the viruses until the cell explodes. Which in its turn releases more viruses into the rest of the body and possibly to other hosts as well.
3. Fungi
Moving on. a few of the thousand of fungi in existence may cause human diseases from minor skin conditions to life threatening diseases.
4. Protozoa are single celled organisms and some may cause disease through food poisoning or through transmission with the help of insect bites as in the case of malaria.
Luckily for us the immune system is designed to fight pathogens and designed to stop sickness. The first step of the immune response happens when the part of the pathogen called the antigen is recognized by white blood cells. This antigen can be thought of as an ID for the pathogen allowing the body to recognize and hunt it down. These antigens are immensely important.