Week 6 Flashcards
What is epidemiology?
The study of how diseases in different groups of people and why
How is epidemiology studied?
Drawing on knowledge of specfic cases
Applies that knowledge across a population
What is the key in the aplication of epidemiology?
Is considering the population risk and how different populations react
Applying relevant data
What is an endemic disease?
Disease that is constantly present in a certain population or region, with relatively low spread or periods with no spreaf when it doesn’t affect people at all (if it is only in the environement)
What is an epidemic disease?
When there is a sudden increase in cases through a large population like a country
What is the different between outbreak and epidemic disease?
An outbreak is similar but usually covers a smaller geographic area
What is a pandemic?
When there is a sudden increase in cases spreading through several countries, continents or the whole world
What is etiology?
The cause of a disease
What is Prevalence?
The number of existing cases of a given disease at a given point in time
What is incidence?
The number of new cases of a given disease over a specific time period
What is virulence?
The severity of a disease
What is mortality rate?
The death rate (number of deaths in a given time period due to particular disease)
What is R0?
The basic reproductive rate for a disease. A proxy measure for how contagious a disease is
What is R1?
The number of cases that any given case could case. R0 = 1 every case leads to 1 case
What is morbidity?
The rate of disease in a population (useful for low case-fatality diseases)
What are the 5 questions to study epidemiology at a population level?
The 5 W’s
What is the health concern? (e.g causative pathogen)
Who is it affecting? (Determine who your population is)
Indentify a sample (hopefully represents your population)
Surveillance - Moniter for patterns and changes over time and space
What is requred for studying parasite/pathogens?
The pathogen
The host
Any vectors or intermidiate host
The context/environment
What are the 3 not all’s of studying pathogens?
Not all pathogens are equal
Not all pathogens are parasites
Not all hosts are equal
What is a key case study involving the same disease but in different hosts?
TB in meerkats, the more social the meerkat the higher probability of testing positive for TB
Badgers: The less social the Badger the higher risk of testing positive for TB
What is a key case study involving the closely related parasites in the same host
Plasmodium relictum lowers reproductive sucess for blue tit
Plasmodium circumflexum results in lower survival for blue tit
What is the 2 major scales for studying pathogens/parasites?
Temporal scale and Spatial