The human body has multiple defense mechanisms that work together to provide resistance, which is the ability to fight disease, illness, and infection.
Body
Defenses and Fighting Infection
The human body has multiple defense mechanisms that work
together to provide resistance, which is the ability to fight disease, illness,
and infection. An infec-tion may be caused by the presence and multiplication
of a disease-causing agent or pathogen, which can be a virus, bacterium,
fungus, or protozoan. Body defenses can be divided into two general categories:
innate or nonspecific and adaptive or specific defenses. Innate(nonspecific) defense defends
against many dif-ferent types of pathogens. This type of defense, which is
present at birth, includes mechanicalbarriers, chemical barriers, NK cells,
inflammation,phagocytosis,
fever, and species resistance.
Specific defenses are more precise and target specific
pathogens to provide adaptive
(specific)defense or
immunity. In this type of defense, spe-cialized
lymphocytes recognize foreign molecules and act against them. Both innate and
adaptive defense mechanisms work together to fight infection. Innate defenses
act more rapidly than adaptive defenses. Spe-cific defenses depend on the
activity of lymphocytes (FIGURE
20-8).
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