Communicable Diseases Flashcards
What is a communicable disease?
Any disease that can be passed on from an infected1 person (or animal) to another person is called a communicable disease.
What is a contagious disease?
Any communicable disease that can spread very quickly from one person to another person.
Name the four major types of communicable diseases and give examples of each.
- Bacteria: Cholera, Whooping Cough, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Diphtheria
- Viruses: Flu, Rabies, Measles, Mumps, Chicken Pox, Common Cold
- Fungi: Ringworm
- Protozoa: Amoebiasis
What is chicken pox and what are the symptoms ?
Chicken Pox is a virus.
The infection has three stages. It starts with the appearance of little, itchy bumps. Those bumps turn into blisters filled with fluid. The final stage is when scabs
form over the bumps. In addition to the itchy bumps and scabs, Chickenpox can cause fever, headache, dry cough or loss of appetite.
What is diphtheria and what are the symptoms?
Diphtheria is a very dangerous bacterial infection.
It creates a coating on the inside of the throat making it difficult to swallow and breathe. Other symptoms: swollen glands, runny nose and fever.
What is measles and what are the symptoms?
Measles is a virus caught via air or saliva. Symptoms appear after 7 - 14 days. Symptoms include: fever, tiny whit spots inside the mouth, cough, a runny noes, sore throat and sore eyes.
What disease do these symptoms describe:
Swollen, painful salivary glands on one or both sides of your face, fever, headache, weakness and fatigue, loss of appetite, pain while chewing or swallowing.
Mumps.
What is the other name for whooping cough?
Pertussis
How do you catch Pertussis?
It is spread among people by direct contact with fluids from the nose or mouth of infected people. People contaminate their hands with respiratory secretions from an infected person and then touch their own mouth or nose.
What are the symptoms of Tuberculosis (TB)?
Bad coughing for 3 weeks or longer, chest pain, coughing up blood or sputum, a fever and sweating at night.
How is TB treated?
Anti-TB drugs must be taken every day.It is very very important that the drugs are taken as instructed otherwise the virus will get stronger and the patient will die.
Can TB be prevented?
There is a vaccine which seems to protect children better than adults.
What causes a cold?
A cold is a virus and is fairly harmless. People usually get better on their own with basic first aid.
What are the symptoms of a cold?
Sore and scratchy throat, maybe a blocked and runny nose and headache.
What are the symptoms of flu?
Chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pain, headaches, coughing and weakness. If flu worsens it can become pneumonia or bronchitis.
People can die from flu if they have a weak immune system.
