communicable disease

Question 1

Aersol

Answer 1

A term used in communicable disease epidemiology to describe the transmission of infectious droplets in a fine spray with potential for inhalation of such droplets or droplet nuclei by a susceptible host

Question 2

Air quality criteria

Answer 2

The ambient levels of air pollutants and exposure times above which there may be adverse of harmful consequences.

Question 3

Ascertainment

Answer 3

The formal process of identifying and delineating the dimensions of a health problem such as endemic infectious disease in a specified community or region.

Question 4

Avian influenza

Answer 4

A lethal strain of the influenza virus designated H5N1 that began to affect poultry in Southeast Asia in 2003. It is transmissible to humans and has a high CASE FATALITY RATE. Evidence on human-to-human transmission is equivocal. It can be carried over long distances by migratory birds.

Question 5

BCG vaccine

Answer 5

The vaccine against tuberculosis prepared from live attenuated bovine tubercle bacilli. It has been widely used since the 1940s, now especially as part of vaccination regimens in low- and middle-income countries.

Question 6

Booster

Answer 6

An inoculation, or series of inoculations, with an antigenic substance that enhances the antibody titre (that is, the level of acquired immunity) consequent upon the original inoculation. Because antibody titre often declines with time, booster doses are required to maintain a sufficient level of immunity to provide protection from infection.

Question 7

Case finding

Answer 7

In communicable disease control, locating, identifying, and assessing people who have had intimate or close contact with a diagnosed case of contagious disease, such as tuberculosis or sexually transmitted diseases; also identification and assessment of people who may have been exposed to contaminated food in an outbreak of food poisoning. .

Question 8

Food-borne disease

Answer 8

A class of diseases attributable to the contamination of food by disease agents, such as pathogenic, organisms and their toxins. These diseases include many kinds of gastroenteric infections, ranging from mild diarrhea to severe life-threatening diarrhea and vomiting with fluid and electrolyte loss caused by conditions including salmonella, shigella, and staphylococcal gastroenteritis, typhoid, botulism and more, as well as diseases caused by toxic chemicals of other biological origin. Some food-borne diseases can also be WATER-BORNE DISEASES, e.g., Salmonella infections and cholera. Foods that are especially vulnerable to food-borne disease include prepared dishes containing milk and eggs, cold meat and meat products that can become culture media for Staphylococcus aureus, and salads that have not been adequately cleansed of contaminants that contain or convey pathogens.

Question 9

Herd immunity

Answer 9

The resistance to a group or community to the spread of an infectious agent, based on the resistance to infection of a high proportion of individual members of the group.

Question 10

Horizontal transmission

Answer 10

In contrast to vertical or mother-to-child transmission, horizontal transmission occurs when infectious pathogens, e.g., HIV, pass from one person to another in the same generation, generally by heterosexual or homosexual intercourse.

Question 11

Latency, latent period

Answer 11

The period between exposure to a disease agent and the appearance of clinical symptoms and signs of the disease. The term is used mainly in relation to the effects of exposure to environmental and occupational agents, such as ionizing radiation and asbestos.

Question 12

Lead time

Answer 12

The time gained in treating or controlling a disease when detection is earlier than usual, e.g., in the pre-symptomatic stage, as when SCREENING procedures are used for detection.

Question 13

Mantoux test

Answer 13

Syn: tuberculin test. A skin test for evidence of infection with the tubercle bacillus that produces a region of redness, swelling, and induration in the skin surrounding an intradermal injection of tuberculin, the purified protein derivative (PPD) of the tubercle bacillus about a week after injection.

Question 14

MMR vaccine

Answer 14

A combined vaccine of live attenuated measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine given in two doses by intramuscular injection at 12 months and 3-4 years of age. Evaluations show that the combination protects against all three infectious diseases.

Question 15

MRSA

Answer 15

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – a type of NOSOCOMIAL or HOSPITAL ACQUIRED INFECTION.

Question 16

Necessary cause

Answer 16

An agent, event, condition or characteristic which plays an essential role in producing an occurrence of a disease, condition or health-related state. For example, infection with the tubercle bacillus in TB. Necessary causes may be SUFFICIENT or, more usually, may not be. That is, they require other agents, events, conditions or characteristics to be also present before the disease etc. occurs.

Question 17

Nosocomial infection

Answer 17

Syn: HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED INFECTION. An infection that is acquired in a hospital or other health care setting. The most common pathogens recently have been multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Question 18

Notifiable disease

Answer 18

A disease that, by statutory requirements, must be reported to the local public health authority when the diagnosis is made.

Question 19

Outbreak

Answer 19

A small localized cluster of cases of a condition, usually an infectious disease.

Question 20

TAB vaccine

Answer 20

The killed bacterial vaccine that provides immune protection against typhoid and paratyphoid A and B infection. The vaccine can induce severe localized and sometimes systemic reactions with fever and malaise, so it is not desirable as a routine procedure, but vaccination against typhoid is recommended for travellers going to endemic regions.

Question 21

Target population

Answer 21

The organ singled out by a pathogen and by specific intervention agents used to prevent or treat the disease caused by this pathogen. Lungs, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, and liver are common target organs.

Question 22

Vertical transmission

Answer 22

Syn: mother-to-fetus transmission, mother-to-child transmission. A term usually applied to diseases transmitted by infected blood or body fluids in which an infected mother infects a fetus, either by transplacental transmission of pathogens or by way of abrasions, etc., sustained during childbirth. This is one of the ways maternal infections, including hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis, and toxoplasmosis can be transmitted.