terms associated with Infectious disease

Question 1

Person or animal that harbors the infectious agent/disease and can transmit it to others but does not demonstrate signs of the disease

Answer 1

Carrier

Question 2

Exposure to a source of an infection; a person who has been exposed. Contact does not imply infection; it implies possibility of infection.

Answer 2

Contact

Question 3

Capable of being transmitted from person to person by contact or proximity. Does not need or utilize a vector.

Answer 3

Contagious

Question 4

An organism that harbors a parasitic, mutualistic, or commensalism guest. The host is the house & the parasite is the freeloader.

Answer 4

Host

Question 5

An organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. Three main classes of human parasites are protozoa, helminths, and ectoparasites.

Answer 5

Parasite

Question 6

An infectious agent or organism that can produce disease.

Answer 6

Pathogen

Question 7

Invasion of the body tissues of a host by an infectious agent, regardless if it causes disease or not.

Answer 7

Infection

Question 8

A pathway into the host that gives an agent access to tissue that will allow it to multiply or act.

Answer 8

Portal of entry

Question 9

A population of organisms or the specific environment in which an infectious pathogen naturally lives and reproduces; usually a living host of a certain species.

Answer 9

Reservoir

Question 10

A pathogen that is transmissible from non-human animals (typically vertebrates) to humans.

Answer 10

Zoonosis

Question 11

An increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population and area.

Answer 11

Epidemic

Question 12

Carries the same definition of epidemic but is often used for a more limited geographic area.

Answer 12

Outbreak

Question 13

The constant presence of an agent or health condition within a given geographic area or population.

Answer 13

Endemic

Question 14

Any of a group of viruses that are transmitted between hosts by mosquitoes, ticks, and other arthropods.

Answer 14

Arbovirus (arthropod-borne virus)

Question 15

Resistance developed in response to an antigen (pathogen or vaccine) characterized by the presence of antibody produced by the host.

Answer 15

Immunity, active

Question 16

When a majority of a given group is resistant/immune to a pathogen, they achieve “____________”. This confers protection to unvaccinated or susceptible individuals/group by reducing the likelihood of infection or spread.

Answer 16

Immunity, herd

Question 17

Transfer of active humoral immunity of ready-made antibodies produced by another host or synthesized. This is used when there is a high risk of infection & insufficient time for the body to develop its own immune response. Short Term!

Answer 17

Immunity, passive

Question 18

Describes any illness, impairment, degradation of health, chronic, or age-related disease.

Answer 18

Morbidity

Question 19

Time interval from a person being infected to the onset of symptoms of an infectious disease.

Answer 19

Incubation period

Question 20

Time interval from a person being infected to the time of infectiousness of an infectious disease.

Answer 20

Latency period

Question 21

An infection that is nearly or completely asymptomatic. The infected person with this is an asymptomatic carrier of the infection.

Answer 21

Subclinical Infection

Question 22

A combination of symptoms, characteristic of a disease, or health condition; sometimes refers to a health condition without a clear cause. Greek for “concurrence.”

Answer 22

Syndrome

Question 23

Measure of death in a defined population during a specified time interval, from a defined cause.

Answer 23

Mortality rate

Question 24

Transmission occurs between an infected person and a susceptible
person via direct physical contact with blood or body fluids.
a) Person to Person

Answer 24

Direct contact (infection):

Question 25

Transmission occurs when there is no direct human-to-human contact.
Contact occurs from:
(a) Vehicle Borne: Person to contaminated surface/object to
person
(b) Vector Borne: Person to vector (mosquitoes,
flies/mites/fleas/tick/rodent/dogs) to person

Answer 25

Indirect contact (infection)

Question 26

often indicate the “onset of a disease” before more diagnostically specific signs and symptoms develop.

Answer 26

prodrome (or prodromal symptoms),