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In biology, a pathogen (Greek: πάθος, pathos "suffering", "passion" and -γενής, -genēs "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent , or simply a germ .
A human pathogen is a pathogen (microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus) that causes disease in humans. The human physiological defense against common pathogens (such as Pneumocystis ) is mainly the responsibility of the immune system with help by some of the body's normal microbiota .
Virulence is a pathogen's or microorganism's ability to cause damage to a host. In most cases, especially in animal systems, virulence refers to the degree of damage caused by a microbe to its host. [1] The pathogenicity of an organism—its ability to cause disease—is determined by its virulence factors.
Even when a pathogen is the principal cause of a disease, environmental and hereditary factors often influence the severity of the disease, and whether a potential host individual becomes infected when exposed to the pathogen. Pathogens are disease-carrying agents that can pass from one individual to another, both in humans and animals.
Virulence factors (preferably known as pathogenicity factors or effectors in botany) are cellular structures, molecules and regulatory systems that enable microbial pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa) to achieve the following: [1] [2] colonization of a niche in the host (this includes movement towards and attachment to host cells ...
Another class of waterborne metazoan pathogens are certain members of the Schistosomatidae, a family of blood flukes. They usually infect people that make skin contact with the water. [5] Blood flukes are pathogens that cause Schistosomiasis of various forms, more or less seriously affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. [6]
A pathogen is a microorganism in the widest sense that causes disease in its host. Pathogen may also refer to: Pathogen (Two Steps from Hell album), 2007; Pathogen (Made of Hate album), 2010; Pathogen, a 2006 zombie horror independent film "Pathogen" (Stargate Universe), an episode of Stargate Universe
An infectious disease agent can be transmitted in two ways: as horizontal disease agent transmission from one individual to another in the same generation (peers in the same age group) [3] by either direct contact (licking, touching, biting), or indirect contact through air – cough or sneeze (vectors or fomites that allow the transmission of the agent causing the disease without physical ...