Chapter 26 Infectious Diseases

Question 1

What is the difference between an epidemic, pandemic, and endemic?

Answer 1

The number of diseases remains steady in a specific area is an endemic, a rising case load in a specific area is a epidemic. When a disease infects large numbers of people and spreads across the world it is a pandemic.

Question 2

What is the number one protective measure for preventing spread of infectious disease by EMS personnel?

Answer 2

Hand hygiene

Question 3

What is a vector?

Answer 3

An organism that harbors pathogens that are harmless to the organism but cause disease when transmitted to a human host

Question 4

What is the name of the act that requires medical facilities to release the test results of patents suspected of having aids, TB, or meningitis?

Answer 4

Ryan white comprehensive care act

Question 5

What is virulence?

Answer 5

The ability of an organism to invade and create disease in a host. It also encompasses the organisms ability to survive outside the living host. For example, HIV does not pose a risk outside the human body because it dies when it is exposed to light and air.

Question 6

What is your ability to fight off infection?

Answer 6

Host resistance

Question 7

What is incubation period?

Answer 7

The period between exposure to the organism and the first symptoms of illness

Question 8

What is communicable period?

Answer 8

The period during which a person can transmit the illness to someone else

Question 9

What disease is prevalent in institutional settings?

Answer 9

Legionnaires disease

Question 10

What cells work together to fight infection?

Answer 10

B cells and T cells

Question 11

What are the characteristics of meningitis?

Answer 11

Inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord, called the meninges. Two types include bacterial and viral.

Question 12

What are the signs and symptoms of meningitis?

Answer 12

• sudden onset fever
• severe headache
• stiff neck
• stiff hamstrings (kernig sign)
• brudzinski sign (passive flexion in one leg causes similar movement in the other leg)
• photosensitive
• pink rash that becomes purple

Question 13

Who is at risk for contracting TB?

Answer 13

Malnourished, homeless, incarcerated, and overcrowded conditions such as institutional and health care

Question 14

What is the classic presentation of TB?

Answer 14

Sudden weight loss, night sweats, fever, hemoptysis. Transmission commonly occurs via large airborne particles among people who live in the same area

Question 15

What is pneumonia?

Answer 15

Inflammation of the lungs. Can be caused by bacteria, virus, or fungi. More severe when it affects already immunocompromised people.

Question 16

What are the s/s of pneumonia?

Answer 16

High fever, chest pain, productive cough, and respiratory distress. May have diminished breath sounds.

Question 17

What makes bronchitis worse?

Answer 17

Gerd, smoking, second hand smoke

Question 18

What is epiglottitis?

Answer 18

Life threatening condition that causes the epiglottis and supraglottic tissues to swell, most prevalent in 2-7 year olds. Symptoms include difficulty breathing and swallowing with stridor and drooling

Question 19

What virus causes mononucleosis?

Answer 19

Epstein-Barr virus

Question 20

If gonorrhea is left untreated in a woman, what may it lead to?

Answer 20

Pelvic inflammatory disease

Question 21

What are the SS of syphilis?

Answer 21

• chancres in the genital region
• skin rash
• patchy hair loss
• swollen lymph glands

Question 22

What are the two types of the herpes simplex?

Answer 22

Type 1- transmitted via contact of oral secretions

Type 2- transmitted through sexual contact

Question 23

What is hep B associated with?

Answer 23

Transmitted through sexual contact, blood transfusion, or puncture of the skin with contaminated needles. Can also be transmitted through the shared use of razors.

Question 24

SS of hep B?

Answer 24

• loss of appetite
• nausea
• vomiting
• general fatigue and malaise
• smell of food can provoke nausea and in smokers will notice a distaste for cigarettes
• as the disease develops, urine begins to turn dark, jaundice and scleral icterus will develop in the patient (yellowing of skin and eyes)

Question 25

What is the most common chronic bloodborn infection?

Answer 25

Hepatitis c

Question 26

What is an additional consequence of having AIDS?

Answer 26

it makes you more vulnerable to opportunistic infections that would not otherwise affect a person with an intact immune system

Question 27

What is gastroenteritis?

Answer 27

Also known as norovirus. A food borne illness that begins to multiply in the small intestine usually by contamination of fecal to oral route

Question 28

What are the SS of norovirus?

Answer 28

• Nasea
• forceful vomiting
• watery diarrhea
• abdominal pain
• weakness and low grade fever

Question 29

How is hepatitis A spread?

Answer 29

Fecal to oral route via contaminated drinking water, milk, sliced meats, undercooked shellfish

Question 30

What is a zoonotic disease?

Answer 30

A disease transmitted by a vector

Question 31

What does Lyme disease primarily affect?

Answer 31

Skin, heart, joints, nervous system

Question 32

What is characterized by a bulls eye rash?

Answer 32

Lyme disease

Question 33

What causes tetanus?

Answer 33

Transmission occurs when tetanus spores enter the body by contaminated street drugs or a puncture wound contaminated with animal feces, street dust, or soil

Question 34

What are the s/s of tetanus?

Answer 34

Begin at site of wound, followed by painful muscle contractions or rigidity (tetany) in the neck, face, jaw, and trunk muscles