School Essays

Biology(How do you get ill?

Douwe

Microbes:

There are a lot of types of microbes, and some of these are harmful: Pathogens. These cause diseases. They go into the human body and start spreading. Pathogens can also be bacteria. The pathogen might cause something like a simple cold, but it can also cause worse diseases.

Insects:

An insect bite might not sound that bad, for example when you're stung by a bee or a wasp causing only short-term pain, but it can actually cause diseases. A mosquito bite isn't very harmful, seeing as it only itches... Or is it? Malaria, one of the diseases that pesters sub-Saharan Africa the most, is often spread by mosquito bites. Malaria can be treated, but seeing as they tend to have less resources and/or money, a lot of people still die from it or suffer for a long time. Another famous example is the tick, which - if not noticed on time - can spread Lyme disease. This is why children who have played outside in the forest for a long time should be checked: When taken off in time, the victim won't be affected too much. When you leave it on for a long time however, the victim can start to feel very tired and will show other symptoms of this disease.

Fungi:

It's also possible to get a disease from fungi: These aren't plants but still spread seeds, or socalled spores. These can infect people. They spread more quickly when hygiene and sanitation are poor. One of the most known examples is when someone's feet are affected: The feet aren't very clean most of the time and because we wear shoes and/or socks all the time it's noticed less quickly. Socks often get sweaty throughout the day, decreasing the hygienic situation even more.

Anthony

Organs:

There are many types of diseases that an organ can have on its own. But they can also be affected by a disease in other parts of the body. For example, if a person would want to donate organs, but is HIV positive, it wouldn't be allowed, as the organs of the person would have an harmful effect if transplanted. The same goes for cancers. A cancer can be located in one specific organ, but it can also spread through the body, affecting other organs. A person can be affected by MODS(Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome), TOF(Total Organ Failure), or MSOF(MultiSystem Organ Failure), requiring the ill patient to receive medical intervention to achieve homeostasis. This illness may be caused by earlier injury, infection, hypermetabolism or hypoperfusion(low blood perfusion to tissues).

Floris

Brain:

There are a lot of diseases for the brain like: Parkinson, Alzheimer and many more. But how do we get them?

As many of us know we get alzheimer and parkinson mostly at the age of 60 and over. But some already get it in their 40s and 50s. To do their work, brain cells operate like tiny factories. They receive supplies, generate energy, construct equipment and get rid of waste. But when a brain cell gets older it cannot always get rid of all the proteins that are in the cell. This makes the cell being too full, thus it cannot work as good as it used to do. They mostly die and don't get replaced. Information doesn't pass through as it used to and neither does the memory in Alzheimer. With Parkinson it's the same but then instead of memory capacity it's the muscle movement that doesn't work as well as it should.

Levi

Germs:

Most germs don't harm you but some are infectious, you get the germs from others when they cough, sneeze or talk to you when they're 1.8 meters away.