Omg, please help?? homework please?

1. Describe ways different types of pathogens can cause illness. In your answer:
鈥?Define the term pathogen in your own words.
鈥?Identify three different types of pathogens.
鈥?Explain how each type of pathogen is acquired and what it does to the body to cause illness.

2. Explain how infection with HIV can lead to AIDS. Explain how a person infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS becomes vulnerable to opportunistic infection. In your answer:
鈥?Describe the difference between HIV and AIDS.
鈥?Define the term opportunistic infection in your own words.
鈥?Describe how AIDS can lead to an opportunistic infection.

3. What is the difference between specific and nonspecific immune responses? Include an example of a nonspecific response and an example a specific response in your explanation. Provide details about the kinds of cells involved in each type of immune response.

1 - A pathogen is any disease causing microorganism
- Three different types = viruses / bacteria / fungi
- Can be acquired through food / via airborne particles / through contact / through cuts/lesions on the skin /
Pathogens cause illness through a variety of means - each dependent on the organism itself. Either through producing toxins or taking over cell machinery etc

2 - HIV is the virus that infects the body's T cells (a vital part of the immune system). AIDS is the condition that results when the number of T cells left in the body is reduced below 100.
OI are infections that would normally be fought off easily in someone without HIV. AIDS leads to an OI because it is killing off your body's key defence mechanisms allowing otherwise easily defended infections to invade and take over.

3 - When the body is initially under attack, it needs to control the spread of the disease by ANY MEANS necessary whilst it looks for the specific B and T cells that can kill the infecting organism.
As a result, the initial response is indiscriminatory, where the body's immune system will kill not only infected cells, but surrounding healthy cells too in a bid to reduce pathogen numbers.
This is non-specific immune response. Non specific immunity also includes the following: Physical barriers (eg skin/sweat etc), acid in stomach / Cilial action of the lungs / Cough reflex / Phagocytosis

Specific immune response is mainly focussed around the B and T cells. Two white cells which are each specific to a particular pathogen.
Once found, the T cells, replicate rapidly and rush to the site of an infection where they target only infected cells. B cells replicate rapidly too, but differentiate into two main types : a few memory cells and millions of plasma cells. Plasma cells produce millions of antibodies that are sent into the blood stream where they rush to the site of an infection too. At the site, they target all free floating pathogens and render them inert or kill them. A the end of the infection, th memory cells remain and patrol the body in case the pathogen ever infects again - at which point,l it will launch a rapid full scale response at such a speed that one never even feels the symptoms!

Hope that was useful.

You're welcome.

I had a tiny typo there - meant to say that AIDS is when the T cell count falls below 200 not 100. Report Abuse