Navigating Health

Archive for March 20th, 2010

A vast range of tiny pathogens-disease-causing micro organisms are able to infect your body and cause all kinds of problems, from a mild cold to life threatening malaria. An infection may be localized, where it affects only one part of your body, or systemic, which means that it affects the whole body. Infectious can be spread in water or food, through touch or sexual contact, in the air and by insects. These micro organisms also have the ability to change and adapt in order to outwit medication, so controlling them is a constant battle.

Invading micro organisms, commonly called germs can be classified broadly into several distinct groups’ bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi and yeasts. Your body can also be invaded by larger, more complex organisms, such as worms and lies; these are often referred to as infestations rather than infections. Bacteria are microscopic organisms consisting of one cell. They are able to multiply very rapidly and are found everywhere-all around us and inside our bodies. Fungi that cause disease tend to fall into two groups filamentous fungi and single celled yeasts. Yeasts resemble human cells. Viruses are powerful organisms made up of simple protein packets containing a few strands of genetic material.

They are so tiny that millions of viruses could fit inside one human cell. A protozoan is a single celled organism that scavenges food from other micro organisms. They live mainly in moist environments such as soil and water but some can live inside creatures, such as parasitic protozoan that causes malaria found in mosquitoes. The creatures that live in close contact with one another and cannot live without their hosts are parasitic worms, mites and lice. This is the reason why the most advanced parasite does not kill their host.