Exam 1 Lecture 6

Question 1

Who is known for being the father of modern epidemiology?

Answer 1

John Snow

Question 2

What was the pathogen that caused a major outbreak in the 1800s within London?

Answer 2

Cholera

Question 3

How does cholera spread?

Answer 3

Through contaminated food or water

Question 4

What is the miasma theory?

Answer 4

Disease is caused by pollution or “bad air”

Question 5

What did Dr. Snow believe the cause of the cholera outbreak was?

Answer 5

Sewage being dumped into the river (no modern toilets/running water in homes)

Question 6

Epidemiology is driven by ____. It relies on a systematic and unbiased approach to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data.

Answer 6

Data

Question 7

What are the 3 factors involved in the epidemiological triad?

Answer 7

environment, host, agent

Question 8

What is the agent?

Answer 8

disease producing microorganism

Question 9

What are important characteristics of an agent?

Answer 9

• virulence, dose, toxicity
• survival in various environments
• antibiotic susceptibility

Question 10

Who is the host?

Answer 10

human or animal who can get the disease

Question 11

What are important characteristics of the host?

Answer 11

• behavior (age, sex, sexual practices, hygiene)
• host genetics
• immunological status (Vaccination)
• disease history

Question 12

What is the environment?

Answer 12

factors that affect the agent or opportunity for exposure

Question 13

What are important characteristics of the environment?

Answer 13

• place (climate, geology)
• presence of insects that can act as vectors
• socioeconomics (crowding, sanitation, healthcare access)

Question 14

What is a reservoir?

Answer 14

environment in which the pathogen usually lives, grows, and multiplies

Question 15

List 3 reservoirs

Answer 15

humans
environment
animals

Question 16

True or false: the reservoir may or may not be the source from which an agent is transferred to a host

Answer 16

true

Question 17

True or false: Asymptomatic carriers are more likely to transmit the disease in comparison to symptomatic carriers, who take precautions to reduce transmission

Answer 17

True

Question 18

Name 2 examples of a water-borne illness

Answer 18

Cholera, legionella

Question 19

Name an example of a soil-borne illness

Answer 19

histoplasma

Question 20

Name 3 types of direct contact transmission

Answer 20

Vertical (mom to child), horizontal (direct contact, e.g. sex), droplet/airborne spread

Question 21

Name 2 types of indirect transmission

Answer 21

Vehicle transmission (water, food), vector transmission (mosquito)

Question 22

What is the R-naught value?

Answer 22

reproduction number “how many people can an infected person spread the disease to”

Question 23

name 3 factors that go into calculating R-naught

Answer 23

• infectious period: how long are they contagious?
• mode of transmission: how contagious is it?
• contact rate

Question 24

True or False: Airborne infections spread faster than those that require physical contact, and thus have a lower R-naught

Answer 24

false - higher R-naught

Question 25

True or False: When a disease infects people for a long period of time, the R-naught value typically increases

Answer 25

true

Question 26

how is listeria usually spread?

Answer 26

eating contaminated food

Question 27

how can listeria be killed?

Answer 27

cooking food properly

Question 28

what is the definition of an outbreak?

Answer 28

an outbreak occurs when the observed amount of cases of the disease is higher than you would expect at that particular time/place

Question 29

define incidence

Answer 29

number of NEW cases of a disease that develop in a population at a given time

Question 30

define prevalence

Answer 30

number of existing cases of a disease in a population at a given time

Question 31

__________ conditions are conditions that need to be reported to public health

Answer 31

notifiable

Question 32

define a pandemic

Answer 32

widespread globally

Question 33

define epidemic

Answer 33

sudden increase in cases of a disease but limited to a certain population

Question 34

define endemic

Answer 34

present in a population at a constant/low level

Question 35

______ is considered a gold standard and is used to generate a DNA fingerprint

Answer 35

PGFE

Question 36

True or False: DNA relatedness is not sufficient to establish a link, you need epidemiological connections

Answer 36

True

Question 37

What is PulseNet?

Answer 37

national & international lab network that connects foodborne illness to detect outbreaks