Dealing with Harmful Micro Organisms

It is exciting to see Vex explaining about disease-causing microbes, which are called pathogens.Microbes spoil leather, clothing etc.Some more information was given on the transmission and spread of diseases.Female mosquitoes carry the pathogens for diseases like malaria and dengue, and spread infection from one person to another.By using a handkerchief while sneezing or coughing, we can prevent the spread of infection.Infections are transmitted from animals to humans by eating uncooked chicken.Human diseases like cholera, common cold, chicken pox and tuberculosis spread from an infected person to a healthy person through air, water, food or physical contact.Microbial infection can be transmitted by direct contact with an infected person or animal, or by eating meat prepared from an infected animal.To prevent microbial infection in animals, antibiotics are mixed with the feed of livestock and poultry.Many pathogens attack crop plants like sugarcane, wheat, rice, potato and orange, and reduce their yield.Antibiotics, insecticides and pesticides are sprayed in the field to control many plant diseases.Anthrax, caused by a bacterium, is a dangerous human and cattle disease.

The foot and mouth disease in cattle is caused by a virus.Antibiotics are used to cure a variety of diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and protozoa, but antibiotics are not effective against diseases caused by viruses.We should take antibiotics only on the advice of a qualified doctor. Medicinal use of microbes- Bacteria or fungi produce a specific chemical that prevents the growth of or kills microbes that cause disease.Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1929.Inactivated or weakened microbes introduced into the body are called a vaccine.When disease-carrying microbes enter our body, it produces self-protecting proteins called antibodies, to fight against the invader.Small pox has been completely eradicated from the world. Several diseases, including cholera, tuberculosis and hepatitis, can be prevented by vaccination.