Ecology and Diseases Flashcards

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1
Q

What is anthropogenic drivers?

A

Human-induced factor that directly or indirectly cause a change in ecosystem.

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2
Q

What is anthropology?

A

Study of human-kind.

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3
Q

What is disease?

A

An interruption, cessation or disorder of a body, system, or organ structure or function.

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4
Q

What is epidemic?

A

Sudden, rapid spread or increase in the prevalence or intensity of an infection.

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5
Q

What is pandemic?

A

The disease spread to the whole world.

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6
Q

What is habitat?

A

The living place of a population, characterized by its physical, chemical and or biotic properties.

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7
Q

What is a host?

A

An animal or plant that harbors and provides sustenance for another organism aka parasite.

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8
Q

What is accidental host?

A

One that accidentally harbors an organism that is not ordinarily parasitic in the particular species.

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9
Q

What is definitive host?

A

A host in which a parasite attains sexual maturity and produce sperm and eggs.

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10
Q

What is intermediate host?

A

A host in which parasite passes one or more of its asexual stages.

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11
Q

What is prevalence?

A

Proportion of host individuals infected with a particular parasite.

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12
Q

What is a parasite?

A

Disease causing organism that exhibits an obligatory, detrimental dependance on another organism aka the host.

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13
Q

What is endoparasites?

A

Live in host’s interior (intra or extracellular)

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14
Q

What is ectoparasite?

A

Live on surface of the host.

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15
Q

What is pathalogy?

A

Study of diseases.

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16
Q

What is a reservoir host?

A

An animal or species that is infected by a parasite and which serves as a source of infection for human or another species.

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17
Q

What is morbidity?

A

State of ill-health produced by a disease.

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18
Q

What is mortality?

A

Death/fatal.

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19
Q

What is a pathogen?

A

Disease causing microorganism such as virus, bacteria, protozoa.

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20
Q

What is population?

A

Group of interbreeding individuals and their offspring.

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21
Q

What is a predator?

A

An animal that kills its victim aka the prey and then feeds on it to maintain and support itself until the next kill.

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22
Q

What is resistance?

A

Reduction in host susceptibility to infection.

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23
Q

What is specificity?

A

Only a subset of host is susceptible to infection.
High specificity = few host lines can be infected by a given parasite.

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24
Q

What is trade-off?

A

Unescapable compromise between one trait and another.

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25
Q

What is susceptible?

A

Accessible or liable to infection by a particular parasite.

26
Q

What is fomites?

A

Objects or material which are likely to carry infection.

27
Q

What is symbiont?

A

Organism living together with another organism.
Mutualists, parasites, commensals.

28
Q

What is transmission?

A

The process by which a parasite passes from a source of infection to a new host.

29
Q

What is virulence?

A

Morbidity and mortality of a host that is caused by parasites and pathogens.

30
Q

What is a vector?

A

A carrier, usually animals that transfer an infective agent from one host to another.

31
Q

What is zoonotic disease?

A

A disease which can be spread from animals to humans.
Caused by fungi, bacteria, parasites and virus.

32
Q

How to prevent the spread of zoonotic disease?

A

Good personal hygiene (wash hands)
Hygienic food preparation (avoid food-borne diseases)
Vaccination for people (farmers, vets, bat caretakers)
Personal protection (Wear complete clothing when handling animals) (cover cut and scratches with plasters)
Maintain animal health (farm biosecurity and animal health program)
Care when pregnant (don’t empty cat littler box)
Care when immuno-suppressed (avoid exposure to zoonotic disease when in medication)
Suspect of stray animals (handle with caution)
Control of pest animals

33
Q

What are the 7 anthropogenic drivers that affect infectious disease risk?

A

Destruction or encroachment into wildlife habitat
Changes in the distribution and availability of surface waters
Agriculture land use
Deposition of chemical pollutants
Uncontrolled urbanization
Climate variability
Migration and international travel

34
Q

Altered habitat leads to?

A

Changes in the number of vector breeding sites or reservoir host distribution
Niche invasions or interspecies host transfers
Change in biodiversity (loss of predator species)
Human-induced genetic changes of disease vectors or pathogens
Environmental contamination

35
Q

What does dam building do?

A

Provide ideal habitat for snails that serve as the intermediate host species for schistosomiasis.

36
Q

How does deforestation increased the risk of malaria?

A

Produced stagnant pools of water and allow more sunlight to reach water surfaces.
Algae growth intensifies and forms a perfect nursery for mosquitoes.

37
Q

What is intact natural ecosystem?

A

Patches of forest and natural treeless ecosystem that show no sign of significant human activity or habitat fragmentation.
Resist the introduction of invasive human and animal pathogen.
Cholera, snail disease.

38
Q

What does uncontrolled urbanization do?

A

Tropical urban areas with poor water supply systems and lack of shelter promote transmission of dengue fever.

39
Q

Talk about habitat fragmentation.

A

Parts of habitat are destroyed, leaving behind smaller unconnected areas.
Causes biodiversity loss and increase prevalence of bacteria.

40
Q

Talk about antibiotic drug abuse.

A

Overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is widening the spread of superbugs that are immune to common drugs.
Antibody given to farm animals to keep them healthy.
Antibiotic protects animals against known strains of bacterial infection.
Mutated form of bacteria resist antibiotic, contaminating meat eaten by human.
Same antibiotic given to human has no effect on immune pathogen.

41
Q

What causes interspecies host transfer?

A

Overcrowded and mixed livestock practices.

42
Q

How does human contact with natural ecosystem increase risk of infection?

A

Contact zones between ecosystem are frequent sites of transfer of pathogen and virus because it contains focus of infection, a place containing whatever epidemiological factors needed for infection transmission.

43
Q

What are some examples of contact zones?

A

Urban-forest borders
Agricultural forest boundaries
Natural, cultivated and urban systems
Some diseases and ubiquitous (found everywhere) in ecosystems.

44
Q

How does a stable ecosystem protect human from zoonotic disease?

A

Undisturbed ecosystem act as a buffer in preventing disease jumping from animal to human.
Rainforest ecosystem contains or limits the roaming range of vector or reservoir within ecosystem.
Undisturbed ecosystem limits the roaming range of animals which are reservoir of pathogen microbes.
Has a very high biodiversity (dilutes parasites and microbes)

45
Q

What is a buffer?

A

Strip of unlogged forest left between a rainforest and a logged forest.
Works as water storage, climate stabilization, and microhabitats.

46
Q

What is the dilution effect?

A

Since not all animals are good reservoir or vectors for pathogens, the more species there are, the better chance to block a pathogen.
Strong dilution results in competition from nonvectors keeps the vector population in check.

47
Q

What are the two main things that will happen after destruction of rainforest ecosystem?

A

Human encroachment into disturbed ecosystem results in getting closer to vectors or reservoir of disease.
Vector and animals move to human habitat after encroachment (poor barrier)

48
Q

Talk about Nipah virus.

A

Pork production expanded and farms built close to rainforests (prime bat habitat)
Farm where Nipah outbreak occurred had fruit orchards adjacent to the pens
Increased transmission between bats and pigs (excreta of bats overhanging at pens exposed to pigs)
Bats are silent carriers of virus
Humans infected from close contact with pigs (bats to pigs to human)

49
Q

Talk about SARS.

A

Severe acute respiratory syndrome
Cough, headache, sore throat, fever, flu, low white cell count, difficult to breath.

50
Q

What causes leptospirosis?

A

Spread by rats in their urine (bacteria in rat kidney)
Found in rivers, lake, ponds
Direct contact with infected urine or indirect contact with contaminated water.

51
Q

Talk about rabies.

A

caused by lyssavirus from bat.
Spread when an infected animal scratches or bites another animal or human.

52
Q

Talk about zika virus.

A

Mosquito borne pathogen.
causes fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, headache
Disease spread from mother to child in womb can cause microcephaly.

53
Q

What is R0 values?

A

Basic reproductive rate. (Infection reproduces when transmitted to another)
Only applies when everyone in a population is completely vulnerable to the disease (no vaccination, no one had the disease before, no way to control the spread)
Indicates how contagious an infectious disease is.

54
Q

What does it mean when R0 < 1?

A

Each existing infection cause less than one new infection (disease will decline and eventually die)

55
Q

What does it mean when R0 = 1?

A

Each existing infection cause one new infection (disease will stay stable and alive but no outbreak or epidemic)

56
Q

What does it mean when R0 > 1?

A

Each existing infection cause more than one new infection (disease will be transmitted and may be an outbreak or epidemic)

57
Q

What is Disease X?

A

Term used by WHO to describe a hypothetical yet unknown infectious disease that could cause a future pandemic.
A placeholder for novel disease that may emerge and pose a significant global threat.

58
Q

What are the characteristic of Disease X?

A

Novelty (new unidentified pathogen)
High transmissibility (spread rapidly)
Severity (may cause severe illness, high mortality rates or social disruption)
Lack of countermeasure (no existing vaccines or specific treatment available)

59
Q

What is the importance of Disease X?

A

Need for global preparedness and the development of rapid response strategies to mitigate the impact of future pandemics
Reminder of unpredictable nature of infectious disease
Importance of vigilance in monitoring and controlling emerging threats.

60
Q

What is the two important frameworks in disease ecology?

A

Disease triangle
One health concept

61
Q

What is the disease triangle?

A

In order for parasite to cause pathology, parasite and susceptible host must be present with sufficient environmental conditions.

62
Q

What is the one health concept?

A

Health of environment, wildlife, livestock and humans are all intricately tied together.
When the health of one component declines, others decline too.