What is the risk of a bacterial infection?

Bacteria are unicellular microorganisms that do not have a nucleus. Their structure is much simpler than the structure of plant and animal cells . They can meet almost everywhere - in the air, in the soil, in the water and even in our digestive system. Bacteria are mostly harmless to humans, but some of them can cause diseases, including very dangerous ones. Bacteria that cause disease are called pathogens. What is a bacterial infection and how dangerous is it for a person?

Any bacterium that does not speak about it, alone can not do much harm to the human body. Why was it always thought that a bacterial infection is caused by bacteria? It's not quite true.

All bacteria, despite their very small size, are still living organisms that lead a normal, in their way, life activity. Naturally, as a result of their very short life they form some kind of life-activity products. These products in bacteria that cause disease, in their chemical structure are poisons. It is these poisons, and not the bacteria themselves, that cause a bacterial infection. They are called toxins. Each bacterium has its own, specific. Any toxin affects the human body in its own way. It is from this that the symptoms of each particular disease depend.

Bacterial infection is caused by toxins that appear at the time of the death of the bacterium. They are inside the bacterial cell, and their release begins after the death of this cell. The destruction of bacteria in the human body occurs constantly: they have a very short life, they are fighting immunity, they are destroyed during antibiotic treatment.

The toxins that form when bacteria die are called endotoxins. However, there are bacteria that can release toxins, but do not die. They are called exotoxins and currently are the most dangerous poisons causing such serious diseases as anthrax, diphtheria, botulism, tetanus, gas gangrene.

In some cases, some bacteria can simultaneously produce both endo- and exotoxins. Treatment of bacterial infections of a double plan is more complicated and requires a special approach. These are such unpleasant illnesses as cholera, whooping cough, certain dysentery variants. Bacterial infection in children is also the result of exposure to toxins. They cause such childhood diseases as whooping cough, scarlet fever, diphtheria.

The treatment of a bacterial infection is quite simple, because nowadays it is possible to deal more effectively with the vast majority of bacterial infections with the help of modern antibiotics. Antibiotics come in two forms. The first type is organic substances based on microorganisms, capable of killing microbes. They have a bacteriostatic effect, including tetracyclines, chloramphenicol. The second type is antibacterial substances extracted from plant and animal cells. They are used both in tablets and as injections, and have a bactericidal effect. These include penicillin, rifamycin, aminoglucosides.

However, antibiotics can not help in all cases. Exotoxic infections are precisely those infections against which antibiotics are powerless. In such cases, use a means that neutralize toxins - a special antitoxic serum. But since the serum can not be applied, the main emphasis is on prevention. These are, first of all, vaccinations that children make at an early age, for example, from tetanus and diphtheria. Various vaccinations are done by adults. The essence of vaccinations is that they are actually very weak toxins. Introduced into the body, they produce an antitoxin, help to form the immune system.