• Question: What is a pathogen

    Asked by Nora900 to Sian, Max, Lizzie, Francis, Ben on 8 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by anon-170091.
    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      It’s an organism that causes a disease, by that we usually mean bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites…

      The word comes from ancient Greek, it means “something that causes suffering”.

    • Photo: Lizzie Wright

      Lizzie Wright answered on 10 Mar 2018:

      Yes, a pathogen can be basically any agent that causes a disease. Its a broad term.

    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      Yes, any microbe that can cause disease. We have many microbes that live on us and in us, we call these commensals.

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