Biology and disease key terms - 1.1 Causes

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Risk Factor
A factor that increases your chance of developing a particular disease
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Health
A state of mental, physical and social well being, not just the absence of disease.
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Disease
A departure from good health caused by a malfunction in the mind or body.
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Parasite
An organism that lives in or on another living organism, causing harm to its host.
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Pathogen
An organism that causes disease.
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Transmission
The way in which a parasitic micro-organism travels from one host to another.
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Vector
An organism that carries a disease-causing organism (pathogen) from one host to another
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Opportunistic infections
Infection caused by an organism that infects a host with a weakened (compromised) immune system.
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Incidence
The number of new cases of a disease in a certain time period.
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Prevalence
The number of people with a particular disease at a certain time.
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Mortality
The number of people who die from a disease in a certain time period
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Morbidity
The proportion of people in a population who are ill with a particular disease at any one time.
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Endemic
A disease that is always present in an area.
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Epidemic
A disease that spreads to many people quickly and affects a large proportion of the population.
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Pandemic
A disease that is spreading world wide or over continents.
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Primary defences
Those that attempt to prevent pathogens from entering the body (skin, mucous membranes).
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Immune response
The specific response to a pathogen, which involves the action of lymphocytes and the production of antibodies.
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Secondary defences
Defences that attempt to kill or inactivate pathogens that have already invaded the body.
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Phagocyte
A cell that can carry out phagocytosis and ingest bacteria and small particles. NEUTROPHILS & MACROPHAGES are phagocytes.
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Phagosome
A vacuole inside a phagocyte which is created by an infolding of the plasma membrane to engulf a foreign particle. The foreign particle is held inside the phagosome.
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Lymphocyte
A type of white blood cell activated as part of the immune response.
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Antigen
A foreign molecule that can provoke an immune system. Organisms have antigens on their plasma membranes.
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Antibodies
Protein molecule released by the immune system in response to an antigen, which are capable of neutralising the effects of the antigen.
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Specificity
An antibody is specific to a particular antigen because of the shape of the variable region. Each type of antibody has a differently shaped variable region.
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Neutralisation
Antibodies covering the pathogen binding sites preventing the pathogen from binding to a host cell and entering the cell.
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Agglutination
A large antibody can bind many pathogens together. The group of pathogens are too large to enter the host cell.
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Memory cells
Cells that circulate in the blood after an immune response. They speed up the response to a subsequent attack by the same pathogen.
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Immunological memory
Ability of the immune system to respond very quickly to antigens that it recognises as they have entered the body before.
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Vaccination
A deliberate exposure to antigenic material, which activates the immune system to make an immune response and provide immunity.
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Herd vaccination
Using a vaccine to provide immunity to all or almost all of the population at risk.
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Ring vaccination
Involves vaccinating all the people in the immediate vaccinity of the new case of disease.
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Active immunity
Immunity that is acquired by activation of the immune system.
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Natural immunity
Immunity acquired through exposure to disease during the normal course of life.
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Artificial immunity
Immunity acquired as a result of deliberate exposure to antigens or by the injecting of antibodies.
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Epidemiology
The study of the distribution of a disease in populations, and the factors that influence its spread.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

A state of mental, physical and social well being, not just the absence of disease.

Back

Health

Card 3

Front

A departure from good health caused by a malfunction in the mind or body.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

An organism that lives in or on another living organism, causing harm to its host.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

An organism that causes disease.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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