hello dear student.
Its sad that we have to 'meet' like this, but we can't always have what we want. And what we need is time, time to complete (well start at least) the syllabus. Many of you have not been taught by me before, so i suppose this is nice way to meet me, and get used to my style of lecturing.
so i usually begin by asking you : why are you studying immunology or of what use is immunology to your daily life?
well immuno is the study of the immune system. Its really impt cos without an immune system, we all would be dead. The immune system comprises many component, viz the immune cells (lymphocytes), antibodies (IgG, etc), complement and cytokines. We will start with immune cells, but not now.
So tell me, when was the last time you went to the doctor for the flu? and he gave you antibiotics, right? Well did you complete the course of antibiotics? Did he tell you how/why he was prescribing antibiotics? What did you do after you began feeling well, say approx 4 days after beginning the course of antibiotics? Did you stop taking them, and keep them for another occasion? Did you think that you could use the antibiotics when you got sick again?
So did you really get better, or did you feel worse after a few days, and when you resumed taking the antibiotics, did it not help? I know you so well!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so here's the thing!
antibiotics are anti bacteria, which means they work against bacteria. The flu is caused by a virus, which means that antibiotics would not work against them. So why on earth are/were you taking antibiotics?
okay let me help you here. The s&s (signs and symptoms) that you wanted treated were all caused by bacteria. The flu virus weakened your immunity, which allowed a secondary bacterial infection to take hold. The yellow phelgm, sore throat, cough, etc al caused by bacteria.
When you take antibiotics for a few days, the exposure kills a percentage of the bacteria. The bacteria not killed survive and develop resistance to the antibiotic. When you resume taking the antibiotics, it is no longer effective. You have in reality created a resistant species of the bacteria. Hmmm not nice. Almost like the way XDR Tb was created, but that story is for another time.
thats all for now.
So man plz explain what is a virus and what cause it???So man plz explain what is a virus and what cause it???
ReplyDeleteHi. Bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi are all different types of micro organisms. Bacteria are single celled microbes that can be seen under a light microscope. They cause most of the diseases we will learn about, like cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, syphilis. Viruses are inanimate particles that are only active within a living cell. They take over the activities of cells that they infect to produce more of themselves. They can only be seen using electron microscopy, and cannot be cultured (grown) in the laboratory. Viruses cause diseases like measles, HIV, mumps, rabies, and chicken pox. At DUT, in microbiology, we deal with bacteria not viruses because we do not have the specialised laboratories to work with viruses. Hope this answers your question.
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