Ch 7 Vocabulary

Question 1

Microbes

Answer 1

Microscopic organisms, including viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi.

Question 2

Symbiotic

Answer 2

Refers to a relationship in which two dissimilar organisms rely upon each other for mutual gain.

Question 3

Pathogen

Answer 3

A disease-causing organism, such as a bacteria, virus, parasite, or fungus

Question 4

Epidemic

Answer 4

A disease outbreak affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously

Question 5

Andemic disease

Answer 5

Diseases that persist in a specific place for a given population year-round at fairly constant rates

Question 6

Immunize/immunization

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Domestication

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Zoonotic/zoonosis

Answer 8

An animal disease that can be transmitted to humans.

Question 9

Social animals

Answer 9

Animals that live in close physical contact with other animals in large groups

Question 10

Crowd diseases

Answer 10

Diseases, such as typhus, tuberculosis, and small pox, that tend to develop in situations of overcrowding and poor sanitation

Question 11

Silk Road

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Steppe

Answer 12

the belt of grassland extending over 5,000 miles, from Hungary in the west through Ukraine and Central Asia to Manchuria in the east

Question 13

Plague

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Enzootic disease

Answer 14

disease affecting or peculiar to animals of a specific geographic area

Question 15

mortality

Answer 15

the relative frequency of deaths in a defined population during a specified interval of time

Question 16

Napoleonic Wars

Answer 16

A series of global conflicts foughts during Napoleon Bonaparte’s rule over France from 1799 to 1815

Question 17

Crimean War

Answer 17

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

Question 18

South Afrian War

Answer 18

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

Question 19

pandemic

Answer 19

A disease outbreak affecting many people in many different regions around the world

Question 20

quarantine

Answer 20

Isolation imposed in order to prevent the spread of a disease

Question 21

morbidity

Answer 21

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

Question 22

mortality

Answer 22

The relative frequency of deaths in a defined population during a specified interval of time

Question 23

vaccination

Answer 23

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

Question 24

germ theory

Answer 24

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

Question 25

antigenic drift

Answer 25

The process through which viruses change slightly from year to year

Question 26

antigenic shift

Answer 26

Sudden and substantial change, seen only with influenza A viruses, resulting from the recombination of the genomes of two viral strains

Question 27

schistosomiasis

Answer 27

An infection caused by small, parasitic flatworms and characterized by inflammation of the intestines, bladder, liver, and other organs. Annually affecting approximately 200 million people a year in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, it is one of the world’s most serious parasitic infections

Question 28

hemorrhagic fever

Answer 28

Any of a group of viral infections, such as Ebola and yellow fever, that occur primarily in tropical climates, are usually transmitted to humans by insects or rodents, and are characterized by high fever, small purple spots, internal bleeding, low blood pressure, and shock

Question 29

megacities

Answer 29

rapidly growing urban areas that have more than 10 million inhabitants

Question 30

metacities

Answer 30

Agglomerations of several cities, towns, and suburbs that have expanded so that they coalesce into a single, sprawling urban mass of more than 20 million people