Infectious Diseases in History

Question 1

give 3 large examples of how infectious disease has shaped history

Answer 1

1. more lives were lost in the Civil War from dysentery than fighting
2. more dies from the Spanish flu in 1918 than all WWI casualties
3. greek and roman civilizations declined in part due to waves of infectious disease

Question 2

what type of infection is pneumonia?

Answer 2

bacterial AND viral

Question 3

what organism causes pneumonia?

Answer 3

streptococcus pneumonia

Question 4

how does pneumonia often strike?

Answer 4

the immune suppressed as a secondary infection

Question 5

what is the cuasative agent of antonine plague?

Answer 5

unknown

Question 6

what is the historical significance of the antonine plague?

Answer 6

made people question the government and religious institutions in the Roman empire

Question 7

what kind if infectious agent is malaria?

Answer 7

protozoan

Question 8

give 2 examples of global implications of malaria

Answer 8

WWII and vietnam but this is still ongoing today

Question 9

describe the historical importance of HIV

Answer 9

rewrote history by affecting homoesexuals and hemophiliacs, a virus

Question 10

what kind of agent causes syphilis?

Answer 10

a spirochete bacteria

Question 11

what is the interesting thing about syphilis?

Answer 11

it seems to have spread from North America to Europe (usually the other way around)

Question 12

give a sad historical connection to syphilis

Answer 12

the Tuskeegee experiments

Question 13

describe the historical significance of measles

Answer 13

hella infectious, wiped out a lot of North and Latin America

Question 14

what organism causes leprosy?

Answer 14

mycobacterium leperae

Question 15

what is the only known reservoir of leprosy?

Answer 15

armadillos

Question 16

what is the historical significance of leprosy?

Answer 16

in the Bible

Question 17

what is the historical significance of bubonic plague?

Answer 17

changed the relationship between nobility and peasants and broke down the feudal system as well as a religious shift due to scared clergymen running away from disease leading to the reformation

Question 18

what is the causative agent of bubonic plague?

Answer 18

Yersinia pestis

Question 19

what is the original reservoir of yersinia pestis?

Answer 19

marmots, then to fleas and rats

Question 20

what is the historical significance of tetanus?

Answer 20

found in many wars due to shrapnel

Question 21

describe the historical significance of bordatella pertussis

Answer 21

the iditarod was originally a rescue and supply mission to isolated people sick in Alaska

Question 22

what is the historical significance of diarrhea?

Answer 22

kills mroe children than all other diseases combined

Question 23

what is the king cause of diarrhea?

Answer 23

cholera, or other digestive tract viruses and bacteria like salmonella

Question 24

where did the Spanish Flu of 1918 start?

Answer 24

in military bases in Kansas due to all the pigs slaughtered to feed the soldiers

Question 25

what is the historical significance of Spanish Flu (other than all the death)?

Answer 25

one of the reasons for the establishment of the Public Health Services, which runs the CDC

Question 26

what is the cause of tuberculosis?

Answer 26

mycobacterium encyst in tissue

Question 27

what is tubuerculosis?

Answer 27

a chronic disease that erodes lung tissue

Question 28

what is the treatment for tuberculosis?

Answer 28

6 month antibiotic treatment

Question 29

what is the issue with treating tuberculosis?

Answer 29

we’ve been treating it for so long that we now have drug resistance

Question 30

where is tuberculosis bad?

Answer 30

where people are stressed and crowded and damp

Question 31

where does yellow fever show up

Answer 31

near water

Question 32

how is yellow fever spread?

Answer 32

mosquitos

Question 33

what is the historical significance of yellow fever?

Answer 33

the French were too sick with yellow fever to finish building the panama canal and the US owned it for a minute