Ch 7 Vocabulary Flashcards
Microbes
Microscopic organisms, including viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi.
Symbiotic
Refers to a relationship in which two dissimilar organisms rely upon each other for mutual gain.
Pathogen
A disease-causing organism, such as a bacteria, virus, parasite, or fungus
Epidemic
A disease outbreak affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously
Andemic disease
Diseases that persist in a specific place for a given population year-round at fairly constant rates
Immunize/immunization
The process/procedure of rendering a subject immune or resistant to a specific disease. Although the term is sometimes used interchangeably with vaccination and inoculation, the act of inoculation may not always successfully render a subject immune
Domestication
The controlled selection and protected development of naturally occurring plant and animal species. Through the domestication process, wild animals become accustomed to living in the company of and/or laboring for human beings. As a result of human control for multiple generations, the behavior, life cycle, and/or physiology of domesticated animals are altered from their wild state
Zoonotic/zoonosis
An animal disease that can be transmitted to humans.
Social animals
Animals that live in close physical contact with other animals in large groups
Crowd diseases
Diseases, such as typhus, tuberculosis, and small pox, that tend to develop in situations of overcrowding and poor sanitation
Silk Road
Ancient trade route linking Rome and China. The 4,000-mile route start at Sian, followed the Great Wall of China to the northwest, bypassed the Takla Makan Desert, climbed the Pamirs, crossed Afghanistan, and went on to the Levant, where merchandise was then shipped across the Mediterranean Sea
Steppe
the belt of grassland extending over 5,000 miles, from Hungary in the west through Ukraine and Central Asia to Manchuria in the east
Plague
Infectious fever caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, a bacterium transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas. Plague was responsible for some of the most devastating epidemics in history, including the Black Plague in the fourteenth century, which killed as many as one-third of Europe’s population
Enzootic disease
disease affecting or peculiar to animals of a specific geographic area
mortality
the relative frequency of deaths in a defined population during a specified interval of time
Napoleonic Wars
A series of global conflicts foughts during Napoleon Bonaparte’s rule over France from 1799 to 1815
Crimean War
War fought from October 1853 to February 1856 mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with support, from Janury 1855, from the army of Sardinia-Piedmont
South Afrian War
Also called the Boer War, or the Anglo-Boer War (October 11, 1899–May 31, 1902) The war was fought between Great Britain and the two Boer (Afrikaner) republics: the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State
pandemic
A disease outbreak affecting many people in many different regions around the world
quarantine
Isolation imposed in order to prevent the spread of a disease
morbidity
The incidence or prevalence rate of a disease. Morbidity rates refer to the number of people who have a disease, whereas mortality rates refer to the number of people who have died from it
mortality
The relative frequency of deaths in a defined population during a specified interval of time
vaccination
The introduction of a mild or “killed” form of a bacterium or virus, or pieces of the pathogen, into a person’s body in order to train the immune system to resist infection by the agent
germ theory
The theory that certain diseases are caused by the invasion of the body by microoganisms. The French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, the English surgeon Joseph Lister, and the German physician Robert Koch are given much of the credit for the development and acceptance of the theory
