Pathogens and Immunity in Nursing

NURSING 1
BIOLOGY ASSESSMENT
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NURSING 2
The pathogen is an infectious biological agent that invades a host organism and produce disease
leading to illness (Birla et al., 2018). There are distinct categories of pathogens like virus,
bacteria, fungi, and protists or protozoa that cause varied diseases. For example athlete’s foot is
caused by fungus which causes ringworm and jock itch, Norovirus infection is caused by virus,
malaria by parasite in the order protists or protozoa and Methicillin-resistance staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA) disease is caused by bacteria specifically staph type which is very resistance to
most antibiotics for treating normal staph infection (Aldory, Ali, and Sultan, 2018).
Athlete’s foot disease mostly occurs to individuals whose feet produce a lot of sweet while
wearing very tight shoes. The feet turn to a scaly rash as a sign of infection which finally
becomes itchy, burning as well as stinging. Athlete foot can be spread from one person to
another via clothing, floors, and towels that have contamination of the fungus.
Malaria is a disease caused by various types of Plasmodium that is P. ovale, P.vivax, P.
falciparum, and P. malariae. The infectious Plasmodium is carried by female Anopheles
mosquito and once infected mosquito bites healthy individual it passes the parasite, hence one
fall sick. Norovirus infection is the most cause of gastroenteritis, and it is difficult to diagnose
the virus causing the disease.
The disease-causing agent penetrates the host via different routes which include oral, direct
contact, vector, aerosol and fomite. Oral entails the consumption of pathogenic microorganism
via contaminated feed, water and environmental material that are contaminated. Direct contact is
where the pathogenic agent attacks the exposed susceptible host by biting the skin, open wounds,
nose to nose and even the mucous membrane. Vector also, transmit diseases by transporting the
pathogenic agent to the vicinity of the host (Stanev, and Moustakas, 2019).

NURSING 3
Resident flora refers to the microorganism that occupies a specific part of the body. They
colonize a specific part and multiply extremely such that they outnumber the cells of the host of
human cells with a ratio of 10 to 1 (Su, Huang, and Pearce, 2019). Resident flora plays a key role
in protecting the body against disease-causing agent because they help to fight pathogen as well
as maintaining homeostasis. Also, studies reveal that some of the resident flora can mediate the
fermentation of glycerol that is naturally produced by the skin to hinder the growth of P. acnes.
Resident flora offers protection to the host by acting as a barrier towards the access of the skin by
other harmful diseases causing agent.
Resident flora also causes diseases in case there are injuries in a place where the resident flora
are not supposed to enter. If they enter they cause disease in that area and also if a person
receives antibiotics that interfere with the system of the body such that some resident flora is
stimulated to cause an infection. Similarly, surgery in an area like small intestine permits the
resident flora to come into contact with vulnerable areas like the abdomen and lead to harmful
infection (Levy, and Allegretti, 2019).
Skin is a natural barrier that hinders so many pathogenic agents that causes infection from
entering the body. It is good to know that skin is the largest organ in the body and covers the
enter part of the outer body. Skin having several layers. Makes it hard for the pathogen to
penetrate to the soft part of the body where they can cause infection.
The mucous membrane is also a natural blockage for the entrance of the disease-causing agents.
Examples of the body part where the mucous membrane occurs are nose, mouth, and eyelids.
Naturally, there is a coat of secretions that occur in the mucous membrane that are responsible
for fighting the pathogenic microorganism. These secretions also protect the body against dirt
entry as well as keeping the surface hydrated.

NURSING 4
Blood clotting is one of the processes that reduce blood loss when a blood vessel is injured. The
process is triggered by an injury to the blood vessel where the platelets (thrombocyte) assembles
into the vicinity. It encompasses the formation of the clot that seals the place where an injury
occurs. Several clotting factors are involved that helps to produce a long lasting clot that stops
further loss of blood (Srihirun, Schechter, and Piknova, 2019). Blood clotting has several stages
which include:
Formation of prothrombinase which can be formed either intrinsically or extrinsically but both
processes entails interaction between coagulation factors. Prothrombinase enzyme converts the
protein prothrombin into its an active form which is thrombin form, an enzyme. The thrombin
formed in turn leads to conversion of fibrinogen into its active form fibrin. The fibrin so formed
is insoluble and can form threads that bind the clot.
The diagram below illustrates the process starting from the injury of the blood vessel, then blood
vessels contracts to reduce the flow of blood to the damaged vessel. Platelet in the blood stick at
the damaged place and form a platelet plug. Further, several chemical reactions occur to form a
stable fibrin clot (Wilson, Neuenschwander, and Chou, 2019).
figure 1: the process of blood clot formation