When you get sick, usually it’s something attacking your cells causing you to become ill. Either something is attacking them, or they're missing something very important and aren't being able to function properly. Genetic disorders, bacterial infections, and viruses are all different types of sicknesses that affect your cells differently causing different types of illnesses. All three are formed in different ways and if they can be treated require different types of treatments. They also have different types of symptoms, if any at all. The only things these three have in common are that they are illnesses that affect your cells, making you sick. Genetic Disorders are basically a mutation or change in your genes. Genes are the main part in hereditary, it’s how you inquire different traits from your parents. They’re passed down from parent to child. Each gene holds specific DNA, which holds the instructions to making proteins. Proteins do most of the work in cells and the mutation from this disorder changes the instructions to making the protein, so it either doesn’t work properly or is completely missing from the cells. Because genes are inherited, you can inherit this disorder or it can form throughout your lifetime. There are only three different types of the mutation; Single gene disorders, Chromosomal disorders, and Complex disorders. Single gene disorders are pretty self-explanatory, they only affect one gene. Sickle Cell Anemia is an example of a single gene disorder. Sickle Cell Anemia is a genetic blood disorder that affects and changes the shape of RBCs and blocks blood flow. This can later cause severe pain and organ damage. Chromosomal disorders are when chromosomes, the structures that hold our genes, are either missing or changed. This is the cause of Down Syndrome. Lastly, Complex disorders are the mutation of two or more genes. Your lifestyle and environment play a role in this disorder. An example is colon cancer. Unlike genetic disorders, bacterial infections are not hereditary. Most bacteria are actually good for you, and helps keep your body healthy. Less than one percent of all bacteria make you sick, but infectious bacteria can make you very ill because they reproduce quickly in your body and release toxins that attack your tissues. Sepsis is an example of a bacterial blood infection. Chemicals get released into the blood and spread causing widespread inflammation. It’s a very serious infection and can cause organ failure, septic shock and even death. Viruses sort of like capsules containing genetic material, but it are not the same as a genetic disorder because it’s not transmitted from genetics. You can get viruses all types of ways, and there are all different types, from the less serious common cold, to severe illnesses such as HIV/AIDS. Viruses are different because they are considered to be hijackers. They attack and invade normal, living cells and use them to produce viruses like themselves which eventually kills the cells, making you sick. Treatment
