Lecture 1: Intro to Infection and Immunity

Question 1

factors that cause infectious diseases

Answer 1

• war
• poverty
• poor public health / access to healthcare
• emergence of new diseases eg HIV and COVID-19
• bacterial resistance
• nosocomal (hospital diseases), catheter and pacemaker related

Question 2

what are Koch’s postulates

Answer 2

for a microorganism to be the CAUSE of a disease it has to…

• be isolated from the diseased animal
• cultured and grown in a lab
• and cause disease when transferred back to the animal
• same type of microorganism has to also be isolated from the newly infected animal

Question 3

the two types of fungi with features and examples

Answer 3

Candida species eg albicans
- unicellular
- yeasts
- reproduce by budding
Aspergillus species eg fumigatus
- multicellular
- moulds
- reproduce by spores

Question 4

examples of protozoa

Answer 4

• plasmodium falciparium causes malaria

- entamoeba histolytica causes amoebic dysentry

Question 5

what are helminths

Answer 5

• single celled eukaryotic parasites
• eg taenia saginata is the beef tape worm
• eg Loa Loa is the african eye worm

Question 6

what causes clinical disease

Answer 6

pathogen-host interaction

Question 7

examples of autoimmune diseases

Answer 7

• multiple sclerosis
• rheumatoid arthritis
• bullous pemphigoid