Pathogens are disease-causing microorganisms. Pathogens are of different kinds such as viruses, bacteria, fungus, and parasites. Pathogens can be found anywhere including in the air, food and the surfaces that you come in contact with. While often confused as the same thing, bacteria and viruses are kinds of pathogens.

Pathogenic organisms are of five main types: viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and worms. Some common pathogens in each group are listed in the column on the right.

Different types of pathogens

• Bacteria. Bacteria are microscopic pathogens that reproduce rapidly after entering the body.
• Viruses. Smaller than bacteria, a virus invades a host cell.
• Fungi. There are thousands of species of fungi, some of which cause disease in humans.
• Protists.
• Parasitic worms.

Pathogenic viruses are viruses that can infect and replicate within human cells and cause diseases. The continuous emergence and re-emergence of pathogenic viruses has become a major threat to public health.

Viruses. Viruses are small particles, typically between 20 and 300 nanometers in length, containing RNA or DNA. Viruses require a host cell to replicate. Some of the diseases that are caused by viral pathogens include smallpox, influenza, mumps, measles, chickenpox, ebola, HIV, rubella, and COVID-19.

After a pathogen enters the body, infected cells are identified and destroyed by natural killer (NK) cells, which are a type of lymphocyte that can kill cells infected with viruses or tumor cells (abnormal cells that uncontrollably divide and invade other tissue).

“Of the 60,000 types of germs that people come in contact with on a daily basis only about 1 [percent] to 2 percent are potentially dangerous to normal people with normal immunity,” he said.

Biologists estimate that 380 trillion viruses are living on and inside your body right now—10 times the number of bacteria. Some can cause illness, but many simply coexist with you.

Unlike the roughly 40 trillion bacteria in a typical human microbiome, an estimate of the number of viral particles in a healthy adult human is not yet available, although virions generally outnumber individual bacteria 10:1 in nature.

Viruses are like hijackers. They invade living, normal cells and use those cells to multiply and produce other viruses like themselves. This can kill, damage, or change the cells and make you sick. Different viruses attack certain cells in your body such as your liver, respiratory system, or blood.

One type of immune cell jumps into the fray after body temperature rises, according to experiments in mice. A fever fights infection by helping immune cells to crawl along blood-vessel walls to attack invading microbes.

taking over-the-counter fever reducers, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, to reduce a fever and its symptoms. resting as much as possible. drinking plenty of fluids to stay hydrated and replenish fluids lost while sweating. taking antiviral medications, such as oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu), when applicable.

Fevers due to viruses can last for as little as two to three days and sometime as long as two weeks. A fever caused by a bacterial infection may continue until the child is treated with an antibiotic.

At night, there is less cortisol in your blood. As a result, your white blood cells readily detect and fight infections in your body at this time, provoking the symptoms of the infection to surface, such as fever, congestion, chills, or sweating. Therefore, you feel sicker during the night.

How to break a fever

1. Take your temperature and assess your symptoms.
2. Stay in bed and rest.
3. Keep hydrated.
4. Take over-the-counter medications like acetaminophen and ibuprofen to reduce fever.
5. Stay cool.
6. Take tepid baths or using cold compresses to make you more comfortable.

Coughing often becomes worse at night because a person is lying flat in bed. Mucus can pool in the back of the throat and cause coughing. Sleeping with the head elevated can decrease postnasal drip and symptoms of GERD, which both cause coughing at night.

We sleep better when we’re cooler. Your temperature starts to rise toward morning, preparing your body for wakefulness.