Basic Epidemiology Terms Flashcards
What is a cluster?
An aggregation of cases over a particular period closely grouped in time and space, regardless of whether the number is more than the expected number
What is an endemic disease?
A disease that is present at a continuous level throughout a population/geographic area
What is an epidemic?
A disease with large numbers of people over a wide geographical area are affected.
What is Etiology?
The study of the cause of a disease.
What is a fomite?
A physical object that serves to transmit an infectious agent from person to person.
A comb contaminated with lice can be considered a ______.
Fomite
What is an iatrogenic illness?
An illness that is caused by a medication or physician
What is the incubation period?
Time in between when a person comes into contact with a pathogen and when they first show symptoms or signs of disease.
Who is the index case?
The first patient in an epidemiological study.
What are two other terms for the index case?
Patient zero or primary case.
What is the latent period?
Time in between when a person comes into contact with a pathogen and when they become infected.
What is morbidity?
The rate of disease in a population.
What is mortality?
The rate of death in a population.
What is an outbreak?
More cases of a particular disease than expected in a given area or among a specialized group of people over a particular period of time.
What is a pandemic?
An epidemic occurring over several countries or continents and affecting a large proportion of the population.
What is a plague?
A serious, potentially life-threatening infectious disease that is usually transmitted to humans by the bites of rodent fleas.
What are the three forms of the plague?
Bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic.
What is a nosocomial disease?
An infection that is acquired in a hospital.
What is risk?
The probability that an individual will be affected by, or die from, an illness, or injury within a stated time or age span.
What is surveillance?
The systematic and ongoing collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health data.
What is a vector?
An animal that transmits disease.
What is Zoonosis?
An infectious disease that is transmissible from animals to humans.
A disease is symptomatic when…
symptoms or signs of injury are shown.
A disease is asymptomatic when…
no signs or symptoms are shown. The patient can still be a carrier of the disease.
Normal flora?
Microbes have a positive symbiotic relationship with other organisms.
Mutualism?
A symbiotic relationship where both organisms benefit.
Commensalism?
A symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other is not impacted.
Parasitism?
A symbiotic relationship where one organism is harmed and one is helped.
What is the infectious dose?
The amount of the pathogen required to cause an infection in the host (varies based on age and overall health).
What is the period of communicability?
The period when you are infectious and can spread your germs to an uninfected person.
What is contamination?
When a potentially infectious agent exists in the host but has not yet invaded the tissues of the host.
What is Infection?
When the infectious agent begins its invasion of the host tissue and its rapid multiplication. May be localized or systemic (spread).
Infectivity is?
The proportion of exposed persons who become infected.
Pathogenicity is?
The proportion of infected persons who develop clinical disease.
Virulence is?
The proportion of persons with clinical disease who become severely ill or die.
Incidence is?
The rate of occurrence of an event (number of new cases of disease occuring over a specified period of time - expressed per a known population size sometimes)
Prevalence is?
Number of cases of a disease occurring within a population at any one given point in time.
