Parasite ecology pt 3 Flashcards
Q: What is the role of epidemiology in understanding parasite transmission and disease distribution?
A: Epidemiology studies all ecological aspects of a disease to explain its transmission, distribution, prevalence, and incidence in a population.
Q: What is the primary epidemiological monitoring organization in the United States?
A: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
Q: Which international organization provides information on global health issues?
A: The World Health Organization (WHO).
Q: How can parasite distribution within a population be influenced?
A: Factors like age, sex, socioeconomic status, diet, and ecological conditions can influence parasite distribution.
Q: What role do vectors play in parasite transmission?
A: Vectors, like blood-sucking arthropods or snails, are crucial for transmitting certain parasites; controlling vectors can help control the disease.
Q: What is landscape epidemiology?
A: Landscape epidemiology studies ecological factors like climate, flora, fauna, and geology to predict where diseases are likely to occur.
Q: What is a mathematical model in epidemiology?
A: It’s a representation of how a system works, using mathematical terms to simplify and solve real-world disease transmission problems.
Q: What is the basic reproductive rate (R0) in disease modeling?
A: R0 is the average number of secondary cases caused by one case in a fully susceptible population with no interventions.
Q: What does it mean if R0 = 1?
A: The disease remains at an endemic equilibrium, where each case results in one new case.
Q: What does it mean if R0 < 1?
A: The disease will likely die out because each case results in less than one new case.
Q: What does it mean if R0 > 1?
A: The disease will likely spread and grow into an epidemic, as each case leads to more than one new case.
Q: What influences the basic reproductive rate (R0) of a disease?
A: R0 is influenced by transmissibility (τ), the rate of contact between infected and susceptible individuals (c), and the duration of infectiousness (d).
Q: What is the formula for calculating R0 in epidemiology?
A:R0=τ×c×d, where τ is transmissibility, c is contact rate, and d is duration of infectiousness.
Q: What are compartmental models in epidemiology?
A: Models that divide a population into groups, like Susceptible, Infective, and Recovered, to predict the spread of disease.
Q: Describe the SIR model in epidemiology.
A: The SIR model divides a population into Susceptible, Infective, and Recovered groups, with rates of transfer between each group.
