Chapter 14: Infection, Infectious Diseases, and Epidemiology Flashcards
Symbiosis
-living life together
Mutalism
-organism 1 and organism 2 benefits
ex: bacteria living in human colon
commensalism
-organism 1 benefits and organism 2 is not harmed nor benefiting
ex: mites in human hair follicles
amensalism
organism 1 is harmed, while organism 2 is neither harmed nor benefitting
ex: fungus secreting an antibiotic inhabiting bacteria nearby
parasitism
organism 1 benefits, while organism 2 is harmed
ex: tuberculosis bacteria in human lung
axenic
-free of microbes
ex: some parts of the body are this like the womb
How and when do you acquire normal flora if the womb is axenic?
-babies acquire their own flora at birth, moving through the birth canal but it is established at 3-6 months
What are normal/Indigenous microbiota or flora
-organisms that colonize the body’s surfaces without normally causing diseases
-most are harmless, but can be opportunistic
resident microbiota
-most are commensal, The microorganisms that usually live on or in a particular body site
transient microbiota
-microbes that get into normal microbiota and are visitors, eventually removed
What are the three main reasons transient microbes cannot persist in your body?
- competition from other microorganisms
- elimination by the body’s defenses cells
- chemical or physical/physiological changes in the body
Opportunists
-take advantage of certain situations
How can you inquire an opportunistic infection?
- Introduction of normal microbiota into unusual site in the body (E.coli helpful in gut, can cause UTI)
- Immune suppression: temporary or chronic
- changes in the normal microbiota which changes the antagonism or competition
- Disruption of your normal microbiota as a result of stressful conditions
Reservoirs of Infection
-most pathogens cannot survive long outside of their host
-sites where pathogens are maintained as a source of infection
-think of microbial reservoirs as places of stored pathogens
What are the three types of reservoirs which can be sites of microbial contamination?
- animals reservoirs (both sylvatic or domesticated)
- human carriers
- non-living reservoirs
Zoonoses (zoonotic diseases)
are ones that are naturally spread from their usual animal host to humans but not usually the other way around
ex: rabies, anthrax, bubonic plague
-humans are often dead end host to zoonotic pathogens as they do not transmit the infection
What routes do we acquire zoonoses
1.direct contact with an animal or its waste
2. eating infected animal or animal products
3. bloodsucking arthropods acting as vectors
Human carriers
infected individuals who are asymptomatic but infective to others
-some individuals will eventually develop the illness while others never get sick
-healthy carriers may have a defensive system that protects them from illness but do not clear entirely from host (Typhoid Mary)
Non-living reservoirs
-soil, water, food can store infection
-the presence of microorganisms is often due to contamination by feces or urine
contamination
the mere presence of microbes in or on the body
Infection
is when the organism have evaded the body’s external defenses, multiplied and become established in the body
-they may or may not cause disease
How do pathogens infect and subsequently leave the body?
-they need a portal of entry or exit
ex: mouth, nose, ears, urethra, vagina, anus, nipples, eyes
Methods of entry: skin
as an outer layer of packed, dead, skin cells which usually act as a very effective barrier to pathogens
-some enter through cuts or burrowing into or digesting the skin
mucous membrane
lines the body cavities to protect are the most common portals of entry