Infectious Diseases - Medicines

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  • Infectious Diseases: Medicines
  • Chemicals vs pathogens
  • Antibiotic resistance
  • Developing medicines
  • Different types of medicines
  • Quiz

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Quiz - Medicines

1. Put the following statements about developing new medicines in the correct order. Drag and drop the statements where you think they should go:


  • 1.
  • 2.
  • 3.
  • 4.
  • 5.
  • 6.
  • Safety tests in animals start
  • Research to understand the disease
  • Clinical trials in patients start
  • Human volunteers given the new medicine
  • In vitro testing using cell cultures, tissue cultures and whole organs
  • Application submitted to market the medicine


2. An agar plate has been pre-innoculated with bacteria grown from a swab taken from an infected wound. Discs containing four different antibiotics are carefully placed on the surface of the agar. The dish is then incubated at 25°C. After one week the plate looks like this:

1.

Which antibiotic should be used to treat the infection?

2.

After 3 days treatment the wound is healing well so the patient decides not to take the remaining doses of antibiotic.
Two days later the wound is worse so he re-starts taking the antibiotic, but it doesn’t cure the infection. Why not?


3. Select the correct answer from the multi-choices. When you have answered all 4 questions you may check your answers by clicking the button below.

1.

When you culture bacteria in the school lab they are incubated at a temperature of

2.

A chemical which can be used to destroy bacteria inside the body is

3.

Which of the following is NOT a way of avoiding the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria?

4.

Approximately how many years does it take to develop a new medicine?

5.

At which stage of clinical trials is the new medicine first tested to see if it works to treat the disease?

6.

What is a double blind trial?


Antibiotic
Medicine that acts against bacterial infections. Penicillin is an example of an antibiotic.
Antibody
Protein that is produced by lymphocytes (white blood cells) and that attaches to a specific antigen.
Antigen
Molecule on the surface of a pathogen that identifies it as a foreign invader to the immune system.
Bacteria
Single-celled organism. Has a cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm. Its DNA is loosely-coiled in the cytoplasm and there is no distinct nucleus.
Biotechnology
The use of biological organisms or enzymes to create, break down or transform a material
Dissect
To cut apart, or separate, tissue especially for anatomical study.
Exponential growth
If something is growing exponentially the larger the quantity gets, the faster it grows
Fungus
Micro-organism that can grow in long tubes called hyphae or as single cells. Fungi have a nucleus, cytoplasm and a cell wall.
Herd immunity
If a high percentage of a population is immune to a disease the disease cannot be passed on because it cannot find new hosts.
HIV/AIDS
Infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It attacks and destroys the immune system.
Hybridoma
Hybridoma cells are formed by fusing a specific antibody-producing cell with a type of cancer cell that grows well in tissue culture
Immune system
The body's natural defence mechanism against infectious diseases.
Immunisation
A process which gives immune resistance to a particular disease. The human or animal is exposed to a harmless antigen in order to raise antibodies and provide an immune memory.
Lymphocyte
A type of white blood cell that make antibodies to fight off infections.
Macrophage
A type of white blood cell that consumes dead pathogens that have been killed by antibodies.
Parasite
Organism that feeds off another living host and causes it some damage. An example of a parasite is a tapeworm that lives in the digestive system of a host organism.
Pathogen
A micro-organism that causes disease.
Phagocyte
Phagocytes are the white blood cells that protect the body by ingesting harmful foreign particles, bacteria, and dead or dying cells.
Protein
A polymer made up of amino acids joined by peptide bonds. The amino acids present and the order in which they occur vary from one protein to another.
Protozoa
Protozoa are one-celled animals
Spore
A spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavourable conditions.
Toxin
A poisonous or toxic substance - produced by pathogens.
Vaccination
A small amount of dead or weakened pathogen is introduced into the body. It prepares the immune system to prevent future infections with the live pathogen.
Vaccine
Medicine that contains a dead or weakened pathogen. It stimulates the immune system so that the vaccinated person has an immunity against that particular disease.
Virus
The smallest of living organisms. Viruses are made up of a ball of protein that contains a small amount of the virus DNA. They can only reproduce after they have infected a host cell.
Efficacy
How well the drug works