Last week, we learned about the first line of defence. It is our body's way of PREVENTING pathogens from entering our body. Some of the strategies include our skin, our tears, and even sneezing.

But what happens if a pathogen gets through?

Second Line of Defence

The second line of defence kicks in if pathogens get past the first line. It’s non-specific, which means it attacks anything foreign.

There are three main parts:

• Fever

• Inflammation

• Phagocytes

1. Get into pairs

2. One person researches as much as they can about fever while the other researches inflammation.

3. 4 minutes to research, 2 minutes each to teach each other, 1 minute to check yours against the board.

Activity

​Fever

​Inflammation

• ​What is it? How do we define it?

• How does it help fight infection?

A phagocyte is a type of white blood cell that eats anything it finds that isn't part of the body.

Pus and snot are made up of dead phagocytes.

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Phagocytes

Scientists call the first and second lines of defence innate. This means they are defences we are born with, and they respond the same way to all pathogens.