ORGAN-SPECIFIC AND TISSUE – SPECIFIC MANIFESTATIONS

Different species of microbes seem to have evolved to home in on different parts of the body. In part, this selection is connected to their point of entry. If they enter from the air via the nose, they are likely to go to the lungs. This is seen in the bacteria causing tuberculosis. If they enter through the mouth, they can stay in the gut lining like typhoid causing bacteria. Or they can go to the liver, like the viruses that cause jaundice.

But this needn’t always be the case. An infection like HIV, that comes into the body via the sexual organs, will spread to lymph But this needn’t always be the case. An infection like HIV, that comes into the body via the sexual organs, will spread to lymph.

The signs and symptoms of a disease will thus depend on the tissue or organ which the microbe targets. If the lungs are the targets, then symptoms will be cough and breathlessness. If the liver is targeted, there will be jaundice. If the brain is the target, we will observe headaches, vomiting, fits or unconsciousness. We can imagine what the symptoms and signs of an infection will be if we know what the target tissue or organ is, and the functions that are carried out by this tissue or organ.

In addition to these tissue-specific effects of infectious disease, there will be other common effects too. Most of these common effects depend
on the fact that the body’s immune system is activated in response to infection. An active immune system recruits many cells to the affected tissue to kill off the disease-causing microbes. This recruitment process is called inflammation. As a part of this process, there are local effects such as swelling and pain, and general effects such as fever.

In some cases, the tissue-specificity of the infection leads to very general-seeming effects. For example, in HIV infection, the virus goes to the immune system and damages its function. Thus, many of the effects of HIV-AIDS are because the body can no longer fight off the many minor infections that we face everyday. Instead, every small cold can become pneumonia. Similarly, a minor gut infection can produce major diarrhoea with blood loss. Ultimately, it is these other infections that kill people suffering from HIV-AIDS.

It is also important to remember that the severity of disease manifestations depend on the number of microbes in the body. If the number of microbes is very small, the disease manifestations may be minor or unnoticed. But if the number is of the same microbe large, the disease can be severe enough to be life threatening. The immune system is a major factor that determines the number of microbes surviving in the body.

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