13, 14 pathogenicity of microorganisms Flashcards
What is a parasite?
- organism that lives on/in host and is metabolically dependent
- can cause disease
What is infection?
- when parasite grows and multiplies on/in a host
2. potential to cause overt infectious disease
What is a primary (frank) pathogen?
- causes disease by direct interaction with a healthy host
What is an opportunistic pathogen?
- organism that can exist as normal flora but enter a new tissue site and immunocompromise the host
What is pathogenicity?
- the ability to cause disease
What are the chain of events for successful infection?
- proper identity of agent
- proper virulence of agent
- exposure to the agent
- dose of the agent
- host susceptible to the agent
What is zoonoses?
- passing infection from an animal to a humna
What is a reservoir?
- natural environment of where a pathogen resides
What is a vector?
- an organism that spreads disease from one host to another
What can cause an infectious disease?
- virus, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, helminths
What are signs of infection?
- observable changes in the body
What are symptoms?
- subjective changes that have no true value of being measured
What is a disease syndrome?
- a set of characteristics that describe a disease based on signs and symptoms
What is the course of infectious disease?
- incubation period
- prodronal stage
- period of illness
- convalscence
What is the incubation period?
- time after pathogen enters, but before sign/symptoms present
What is the prodronal stage?
- the time of sign/symptom onset
2. no clear diagnosis
What consists of the period of illness?
- time when disease is worst
2. sign, symptom are clearly present
What is the convalescence stage?
- time when sign, symptoms begin to disappear
What is required in order for a pathogen to cause disease?
- suitable environment
- source of nutrients
- virulence factors to protect against harmful elements.
What is virulence?
- the ability of a pathogen to cause infection
- - directly related to survival time outside a host
What is a pathogenicity island?
- contains major virulence factors on large segments of chromosomal or plasmid DNA
What is the effect of a pathogenicity island?
- increases bacterial virulence
What contributes to the virulence factors of a pathogen?
- depends on the adherence, colonization, and invasion of the pathogen
What is a parenteral route, that can lead to disease?
- entrance from a break in any barrier defenses
- IV site, nail through skin…
What occurs after the pathogen has gained entrance into a host, and begins colonization?
- colonization consists of microbial reproduction, not always causing tissue damage or invasion
What are two most commonly seen structures used for adherence?
- pili
- fimbriae
- bind to complementary receptors on host cell surface
What type of adherence mechanism do E. coli use?
- type I fimbriae to bind on sugar residue in instestine
What type of adherence mechanism do streptococcus pyogenes use?
- Protein F on the upper respiratory tract
What type of adherence mechanism do streptococcus mutans use?
- sugar residue to bind salivary glycoproteins on teeth
Infectivity?
ability to create a discrete point of infection
Invasiveness?
ability to spread to adjacent tissues
What forms of penetration exist?
- active
2. passive