2007-03-09 06:15:01 · 4 answers · asked by Dawn S 2 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Infectious Diseases
A microbe is any small organism like a protist, bacterium, alga or fungi. If you wanna be really broad with the term, you could include viruses, too.
Not all microbes cause diseases.
To put it broadly, a pathogen is anything that causes disease. "Pathos" is the root meaning "sickness or feeling," whereas "gen" is the root meaning "to start or give rise." So "pathogen" is something that starts up sickeness.
Not all pathogens are microbes. Sometimes, it's a product of a microbe (but not the microbe itself). Sometimes it's some other kind of toxin.
But in everyday use, when you talk about pathogens, you are usually referring to a microbial agent of illness.
2007-03-09 08:57:55 · answer #1 · answered by Gumdrop Girl 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
Microbes are simply microscopic organisms such as bacteria, fungi, algae, etc... Pathogens are the same, but a little more specific; they are disease-causing microbes. So all pathogens are microbes, but not all microbes are pathogens.
2016-03-18 04:24:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What Is Pathogens
2016-10-04 13:35:33 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What Is Microbes
2016-12-17 13:33:35 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋