Epidemiology

Question 1

What is epidemiology?

Answer 1

• study of occurrence, distribution and control of disease in human populations

Question 2

What is important to understand about a pathogen?

Answer 2

• natural history
• understand ability to grow, reproduce and maintain existence

Question 3

What do epidemiologists trace?

Answer 3

• spread of disease to identify origin and mode of transmission

Question 4

What does bubonic mean?

Answer 4

• not contageous

Question 5

What does numonic mean

Answer 5

• when it reaches lungs it is transmitted by breathing

Question 6

What does overpopulation of a bacteria indicate?

Answer 6

• predator is missing (something is missing)

Question 7

What is disease prevalence?

Answer 7

• proportion/percentage of diseased individuals at any one time
• ex. 2/3: 70% of population diseased

Question 8

What is disease incidence?

Answer 8

• number of diseased individuals
• ex. 12 people, 14 chipmunks

Question 9

What is an epidemic?

Answer 9

• when disease occurs in unusually high number of individuals in a population at same time
• contained locally

Question 10

What is a pandemic?

Answer 10

• widely distributed epidemic (world)
• air travel

Question 11

What is an endemic?

Answer 11

• disease constantly present in population with low incidence

Question 12

What does sporadic mean?

Answer 12

• disease occurrence where individual cases are recorded in geographically separated places
• similar but separated

Question 13

What is an outbreak?

Answer 13

• number of cases observed in short period of time where previously only sporadic disease reported

Question 14

What are carriers?

Answer 14

• individual subclinically infected with no/mild symptoms (actively carrying pathogen)
• subtle enough host does not notice, organisms persist longer than we notice

Question 15

What is mortality?

Answer 15

• measure of incidence of death in population (numbers)

Question 16

What is morbidity?

Answer 16

• includes all cases (fatal and non-fatal)
• ALWAYS HIGHER than mortality

Question 17

What was the causative agent of disease in the film watched in class?

Answer 17

• deermouse was vector
• common-cause

Question 18

What is zoonotic?

Answer 18

• anything transferred from animal to human
• present in animal then transferred

Question 19

What is inanimate?

Answer 19

• not living (food/water)

Question 20

What is a reservoir?

Answer 20

• site where infectious microorganisms remain alive/viable
• animate or inanimate

Question 21

What is typhoid mary caused by?

Answer 21

• salmonella typhi

Question 22

What is a vector that is hard to avoid?

Answer 22

mosquito

Question 23

What are potential pathogens?

Answer 23

• easily eradicated if completely adapted to human host and have no other reservoir
• isolation = kill pathogen out