Learning objectives
State that pathogens cause infectious diseases that can pass from host to host, and name the pathogen of cholera (Vibrio cholerae), malaria (Plasmodium falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale, P. vivax), TB (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. bovis) and HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus).
Explain the route by which each disease spreads: faecally contaminated water or food (cholera), the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito (malaria), airborne droplets and, for M. bovis, unpasteurised milk (TB), and blood, sexual fluids and mother-to-child transfer (HIV).
Evaluate why cholera, malaria, TB and HIV remain hard to prevent and control, weighing biological factors (vectors, drug resistance, latent infection) against social and economic ones (sanitation, poverty, stigma, access to health care).
Outline how penicillin stops growing bacteria from building strong cell walls so that they burst, and explain why antibiotics have no effect on viruses.
Discuss the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA and multi-drug-resistant TB, what it means for medicine, and how careful prescribing, completing courses and infection control slow it.
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