What is disease resistance?
Disease resistance refers to the ability of an organism to limit the negative effects of a disease. This can occur through different mechanisms:
- Structural barriers like skin prevent pathogens from entering the body. The skin acts as a physical barrier that pathogens must break through to cause infection.
- Immune responses play a major role. The immune system can recognize and eliminate pathogens before they cause harm. For example, antibodies bind to viruses to neutralize them and mark them for destruction by other immune cells.
- Cellular responses also limit infection. For instance, interferons secreted by virus-infected cells warn nearby cells about the virus, protecting them from infection.
- Genetic resistance happens when an organism has gene variants that make it less susceptible to a disease. People with the CCR5-Δ32 variant are resistant to HIV for example.
- Behavioral resistance is when behaviors limit exposure. Wearing gloves when handling hazardous materials reduces the risk of toxic exposure for example.
Why is disease resistance important?
Disease resistance allows individuals and populations to avoid the negative impacts of disease, including:
- Reduced mortality and morbidity. Disease resistance helps avoid illness, hospitalization, and death.
- Increased fitness and productivity. Remaining healthy improves growth, reproduction, and other fitness-related parameters.
- Reduced infectious spread. Limiting pathogen replication and transmission helps protect the wider population.
- Decreased economic costs. Disease resistance reduces healthcare expenditures and loss of productivity.
As such, understanding and enhancing disease resistance is a major goal in fields like public health, epidemiology, and medicine. Investing in disease resistance through nutrition, hygiene, vaccination, and genetics can pay major dividends!
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