Module 1 Flashcards
Section A: Factors Influencing Likelihood of Disease Presence
A person who has one or more defects in the body’s normal defense mechanisms that predispose him or her to infections, often life-threatening, that would otherwise not occur.
Section A: Factors Influencing Likelihood of
Disease Presence
Immunocompromised person
Pathogens able to cause infection and disease.
Section A: Factors Influencing Likelihood of
Disease Presence
True pathogens
Organisms that tend to become pathogenic only when an individual has some level of immunosuppression.
Section A: Factors Influencing Likelihood of
Disease Presence
Opportunistic organisms
The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public
and private communities, and individuals. (CMS)
Section A: Factors Influencing Likelihood of
Disease Presence
Public health
Free-living, single-celled organisms that multiply through chromosomal replication and cellular division.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Bacteria
Chemical substances that surround cells.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Glycocalyx
An organized glycocalyx that is firmly attached to the cell wall.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Capsule
An unorganized glycocalyx that is loosely attached to the cell wall.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Slime layer
The measure of a microbe’s ability to invade and create disease in a host, determined by characteristics that relate to the favored site of invasion, disease induction,
and avoidance of host resistance.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Virulence
Bacteria in which the cell wall consists of many layers of peptidoglycan, forming a thick rigid structure.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Gram-positive bacteria
Bacteria in which the cell walls contain only one (or very few) layers of peptidoglycan.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Gram-negative bacteria
Toxins that are secreted by bacteria, mainly those that are Gram-positive.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Exotoxins
Surface components (complexes of bacterial proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides remaining firmly in the bacteria) of Gram-negative bacteria.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Endotoxins
Cell structures composed of nuclear material and protein that enable bacteria to survive extreme conditions.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Endospores
Attached, architecturally defined, three-dimensional environments that may contain either single or multiple species of microorganisms.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Biofilms
Bacteria that have an absolute requirement for oxygen; without it, they do not grow.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Aerobic bacteria
Bacteria that can use oxygen if it is present but can grow without it.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Facultative anaerobes
Bacteria that grow only in the complete or nearly complete absence of oxygen and are inhibited or killed by oxygen.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Obligate anaerobes
Bacteria that require 2 to 10% of the normal atmospheric concentration (21%); may also require increased carbon dioxide concentrations.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Microaerophilic bacteria
Bacteria that typically are found in the gastrointestinal tract.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Enteric bacteria
Bacteria that typically are found outside the gastrointestinal tract; are frequently opportunistic and found in the environment (e.g., soil and water).
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Non-enteric bacteria
Obligate intracellular parasites that require living host cells to grow and reproduce and are dependent on the cells’ synthetic and metabolic machinery.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Viruses
Intact viral particles made up of nucleic acid (either RNA or DNA), a protein coat (capsid), and possibly an envelope composed of viral proteins and host cell lipids.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Virions
Infectious particles of abnormally folded proteins that do not contain DNA or RNA.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Prions
A term that refers generically to all members of the kingdom fungi.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Fungus
Infections or diseases caused by fungi.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Mycosis
Unicellular, round to oval organisms ranging in size from 2 to 60 millimeters.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Yeasts
Usually reproduce by elongation and fragmentation of their hyphae (or pseudohyphae), which are tube-like projections; they produce fluffy, cottony, wooly, or powdery colonies.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Molds
An organism that lives on or within another organism and obtains an advantage at the expense of the host.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Parasite
The entry into and multiplication of an infectious agent in the tissues of the host and tissue damage resulting in apparent or unapparent changes in the host.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Infection
The period of time from exposure to some infectious source to the development of signs and symptoms.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Incubation period
The time from exposure to the beginning of the infectious period.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Latent period
The presence of microorganisms in or on a host with growth and multiplication but without causing any symptoms or disease.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Colonization
The proportion of other patients or residents colonized within a defined population or area.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and Responding to Disease
Colonization pressure
The presence of an infectious agent on a body surface or inanimate object.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Contamination
Contamination that occurs during the manufacturing process or transport to the healthcare facility.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Intrinsic contamination
Contamination that occurs subsequent to manufacturing, during preparation, storage, or administration within the healthcare facility.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Extrinsic contamination
Increases in positive cultures of the same organism (clusters) that occur with no evidence of disease.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Pseudo-outbreaks
Microbes that normally live in and on the body without causing infection or disease to the host.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Normal flora
Normal flora that are always present on the skin and throughout the body, including the body’s colonizing bacteria.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Resident flora
Normal flora that colonize the skin and mucosa temporarily, without invading tissues.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Transient flora
Any substance identified by the human immune system as “other” or “foreign,” usually taking the form of a molecule originating from a bacterium or other invader.
Section B: Detecting, Identifying, and
Responding to Disease
Antigen
The presence of bacteria in the urine.
Section C: Commonly Encountered Organisms
Bacteriuria
Organisms that develop resistance to multiple antimicrobials, especially those that are traditionally used for treatment.
Section C: Commonly Encountered Organisms
Multiple-drug-resistant organisms (MDROs)
A laboratory technique used to grow (cultivate) bacteria and yeast.
Section D: Clinical Testing
Culture
Describes whether an identified organism is able to be treated successfully using a given antimicrobial.
Section D: Clinical Testing
Susceptibility
A report that summarizes typical patterns of susceptibility to antibiotics by specific species of bacteria.
Section D: Clinical Testing
Antibiogram
A substance, such as an antibiotic, that kills or stops the growth of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, or viruses; grouped according to the microbes they act
against (antibiotics, antifungals, and antivirals). (CDC)
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Antimicrobial
A type of antimicrobial that is synthesized by a living microorganism, usually a fungus.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Antibiotic
The lowest concentration of a drug that can inhibit microbial growth in vitro (in the lab).
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC)
The time it takes for the body to metabolize half of a drug.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Half life
Practices dedicated to improving and optimizing antimicrobial selection, dosage, and duration while minimizing resident harm.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Antimicrobial stewardship
Programs that optimize the selection, dosage, and duration of antimicrobial treatment to produce the best clinical outcome with minimal toxicity to the resident.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs)
Involves administering an antimicrobial to a patient before definitive information about a causative pathogen is available, typically because the results of
the culture are pending.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Empiric therapy
In antimicrobial susceptibility testing, level at which a drug is likely to be effective for the treatment of infection using a standard dosage.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Susceptible
In antimicrobial susceptibility testing, level at which a drug is likely to be effective only at body sites where it is physiologically concentrated or at other body sites if higher-than-usual dosing regimens are used.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Intermediate-susceptible
In antimicrobial susceptibility testing, level at which a drug is unlikely to be effective for the treatment of infection unless predictably toxic dosages are used.
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Resistant
Coordinated guidance and interventions to improve appropriate use of microbiological diagnostics to guide therapeutic decisions; should promote appropriate, timely diagnostic testing, including specimen collection, and pathogen identification and accurate, timely reporting of results to guide patient treatment.
(WHO)
Section E: Antimicrobial Stewardship
Diagnostic stewardship
