Chapter 16

You are hired as an epidemiologist for the following study. You wish to determine if potato salad, served at a local farmer's market a month ago, caused an outbreak of a food-borne illness. You specifically interview individuals who had eaten potato salad and developed the illness, as well as individuals who ate the potato salad and did not develop illness. Based on this description, which type of study was conducted?

Case control

Which agency monitors notifiable diseases in the United States?

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

SARS first occurred in ________, before becoming a(n) ________ disease. Choose the correct pair from the following.

China, pandemic

All etiologic agents are pathogens.

False

An individual with human papillomavirus (HPV) who has genital warts can transmit HPV to their partner via kissing on the lips.

False

Etiology is the study of the transmission of diseases.

False

The WHO only monitors the prevalence of infectious diseases around the world.

False

Who traced the typhoid outbreak of 1900-1915 to Mary Mallon?

George Soper

Match the pathogen to the disease it causes: Trypanosoma brucei

African sleeping sickness

The tsetse fly transmits which disease?

African sleeping sickness

Robert Koch was the first to conclusively determine the causative agent of which disease?

Anthrax

Which of the following is true about modern emerging diseases?

They occur in both developing and developed countries.

Match the type of spread to the best description: Point-source spread

Transmitted from a common source that operates for less than the incubation time of a pathogen.

Match the type of spread to the best description: Continuous-source spread

Transmitted from a common source that operates for longer than the incubation time for a pathogen.

Match the type of spread to the best description: Intermittent-source spread

Transmitted from a common source that operates sporadically.

Match the type of spread to the best description: Common-source spread

Transmitted from a single source to all individuals infected.

Humans can be reservoirs for pathogens.

True

In experimental epidemiological studies, study subjects are manipulated in some manner.

True

In the 1800s, nosocomial diseases were prevalent.

True

Lyme disease is more prevalent in the northern hemisphere.

True

Nosocomial infections can be acquired in hospital settings.

True

The prevalence of HIV is generally higher than its incidence.

True

Which is the transmission mechanism for West Nile Virus?

Vector

Tuberculosis is typically transmitted via which of the following?

air

Which of the following most specifically describes a notifiable disease?

any disease of public health importance

Infected fleas that have the bacterium Yersinia pestis growing inside them are able to transmit plague. In this case, the infected fleas are best described as which of the following?

biological vectors

John Snow developed a detailed map (the "ghost map") to investigate the etiology of which disease?

cholera

Sexually transmitted diseases between sexually active partners are most commonly transmitted by which method?

horizontal direct contact

Match the pathogen to the disease it causes: Borrelia burgdorferi

Lyme disease

Which of the following is not a notifiable disease?

MRSA

Match the pathogen to the disease it causes: Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria

Which of the following is not a fomite?

Nurse

Match the type of spread to the best description: Propagated spread

Occurs through direct or indirect person-to-person contact.

How long does rhinovirus survive outside physiological fluids?

less than a day

A fruit fly lands on cow feces and then flies over to a bowl of watermelon being served at a farm picnic. The fruit fly in this example is which of the following?

mechanical vector

Which of the following is not an example of evidence used by John Snow to determine that cholera was being transmitted by water in London in the 1800s?

microscopic examination of water

Florence Nightingale's 1958 book included graphs showing that many casualties she observed were due to which of the following?

preventable infectious diseases

Which type of studies gathers data from past cases to study present-day cases?

retrospective

Tetanus, which is caused by Clostridium tetani, is an example of which type of disease?

sporadic

Listeria monocytogenes, the causative agent of listeriosis, can pass through the blood-placenta barrier to infect a fetus. This type of transmission to the fetus is known as which of the following?

vertical direct contact

Match the pathogen to the disease it causes: Yersenia pestis

Plague

Which of the following statements about quarantine is false?

Public health authorities can quarantine patients for any diseases.

Match the pathogen to the disease it causes: Rickettsia rickettsii

Rocky moutnfain spotted fever

Match the outbreak to its proper description: pandemic

A disease increases in frequency worldwide.

Match the outbreak to its proper description: endemic

A disease occurs at a relatively constant and often low level within a population.

Match the outbreak to its proper description: sporadic

A disease occurs relatively rarely, without a geographic focus.

Match the outbreak to its proper description: epidemic

A disease produces more cases than expected within a short time in a localized area.

Which term refers to the study of the geographic distribution of disease and its transmission?

epidemiology

Which term refers to the study of the cause of disease?

etiology

You wish to determine if a new drug can cure individuals with colds caused by rhinoviruses. You invite 50 individuals to participate in the study. Using a double-blind approach, 25 individuals get a sugar pill and 25 get the test drug. Based on this description, which type of study was conducted?

experimental