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Biology Assessment Task-The Search for Better Health

Designing an Experiment
Should include the following;
-Aim
-Hypothesis
-Material
-Method





Pasteur and Koch

Pasteur
The two scientists who contributed to our understanding of the cause of
disease were Pasteur and Koch.
Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease,which states that most infectious
diseases are caused by micro-organisms.
He examined fermenting wine samples under microscope,its demonstrated that
living organisms are present in the air,not spontaneously generated.
He also demonstrated that anthrax,a disease affecting cattle,sheep and horses
was caused by a rod-shaped bacterium called bacillus anthracis.
He conducted an experiment to see if inoculation of a weakened strain of the
bacterioum could prevent death.He took 50 sheep and inoculated 25 of them
with weakend strain,several days later he injected all the sheep with the strong
does of the disease.The result was that 25 sheep that were not inoculated all
died.Today we call this process vaccination.
Koch
Koch also studied the Anthrax disease,he isolated the bacterioum bacillus
Anthracis from the blood of a dying animal and examined it under microscope
From his study of Anthrax,he was able to develop the Kochs postulates which
stated that :
1. The specific microorganism which causes a disease must be present in
every host with the disease.
2. The specific microorganism must be isolated from the host and grown in
pure culture
3. When another host is inoculated with the microorganism, it must develop
the same symptoms as the 1
st
host.
4. The specific microorganism must be able to be isolated from the 2
nd
host
and identified as the same species as the microorganism found in the 1
st

host.
Koch also proved that microbes are the cause of diseases.


Antibiotic & resistance

Antibiotics are substances capable of destroying or inhibiting the growth of
bacteria.They are chemicals which acts selectively on pathogen without
destroying the host.
Antibiotics are not effective against virus.
An example of antibiotics is penicillin which destroys the cell walls of
bacterias.
Narrow spectrumantibiotics only target one or two bacterias while broad
spectrumantibiotics act on a wide range on bacteria.
Antibiotics work on cellular level,they interfere wiith,damage or destroy the
cells of the bacteria.
Resistance

Because of the widespread use of antibiotics,some bacteria have evoled
resistant strains,this can be problematic as antibiotics will not longer be
effective against these superbacteria
New types of antibitics are needed to treat this new strain of bacteria
By continually exposing bacterial populations to antibiotics we icrease the
opportunity for resistant bacteria to survive and reproduce.As a result,when
next an antibiotic is taken it could be ineffective

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