One of the topics covered in GCSE Science is the requirements for keeping healthy. This is the third of six quizzes looking at this subject and it concentrates in particular on microorganisms, such as bacteria or fungi, which cause disease.
It's hard to believe but there was a time when doctors who performed operations, examinations and post mortems did not wash their hands at all. The reason was that there was no 'germ theory'. They had no idea of the existence of microorganisms and no idea that some of these were pathogenic (create infectious diseases). Microorganisms are microscopic, living, single-celled organisms such as bacteria. Sometimes people refer to viruses as microorganisms, which they are not. Viruses are not alive, they are simply a strand of DNA in a protein coating.