Micro Set 3
Endotoxin
a bacterial toxin confined within the body of a bacterium that is freed only when the bacterium is broken down.
Vector
a carrier, usually an insect or other arthropod, that transmits the causative organisms of disease from infected to noninfected individuals. Often the disease carrying organism goes through one or more stages in its lifecycle on or inside the vector. Vectors can carry pathogens externally on their body or internally within their body.
Antigen
a foreign substance that stimulates the formulation of antibodies, which interacts specifically with the antigen.
Drug-Fast
a microorganism virulent enough to resist pharmaceuticals designed to reduce disease
Toxins
a poisonous substance of plant, animal, bacterial, or fungible origin.
Artificial active immunity
a result of receiving a vaccination.
Artificial passive immunity
a result of the injection of antibodies in the form of immune serums.
General infection
a systemic infection (ex. measles)
Exotoxin
a toxin, generally a protein, produced by a microorganism and excreted into its surrounding medium.
Mechanical vector
a vector in or on which growth and development of the infective agent do not occur. Unlike biological vectors, pathogens spread by mechanical vectors may not reproduce in the vectors body. A fly acts as a mechanical vector when it lands on feces, picks up intestinal pathogens and then transmits the pathogens to nearby food on its legs. The fly is a mechanical vector rather than a biological but that vector because the pathogen is carried on the outside of its body and the microorganism does not grow inside the fly.
Innate immunity
also known as natural immunity, is a form of immunity due to physical characteristics that can be attributed to biological differences such as race or sex. Certain groups of people are simply immune to certain diseases because they are born with a natural immunity.
Primary infection
an acute infection that causes the initial illness.
Exogenus infections
an infection caused by organisms not present in the body.
Focal infection
an infection in which the organisms are originally confined to one area that enter the blood or lymph vessels and spread to other parts of the body. (May arise from infections of the teeth, tonsils, or sinuses).
Pathogen
an organism capable of producing disease (the germ that causes the disease).
Biological vectors
animal vectors in which the disease causing organism multiplies or develops within the animal prior to becoming infective for a susceptible person. There are often several stages in the lifecycle of microorganisms spread by _____ _____ (ex. malaria).
Fomites
are any inanimate objects to which infectious material adheres and can be transmitted. The primary mechanisms of indirect contact our food, water, air, and zoonoses.
Septicemia
commonly known as blood poisoning, occurs when the bacteria actually multiply in the blood. If the infection is allowed to progress, the bacteria can multiply and cause an overwhelming, fatal infection. Septicemia is also characterized by a chills and fever, Petechiae (pinpoint bleeding), bleeding pustules, abscesses and shock.
Acquired immunity
differs from innate immunity in that the individual must either form antibodies to a pathogen personally, or be given the antibodies from an alternate source.
Pandemic disease
disease that affects the majority of the population of a large region or are epidemic at the same time in many different parts of the world.
Noncommunicable diseases
disease that does not spread from one person to another.
Endemic disease
disease that occurs continuously in a particular region but usually have a low mortality.
Sporadic disease
disease that occurs occasionally or in scattered instances within a geographic region.
Zoonoses
diseases that are communicable from animals or animal products (rabies).
Epidemic disease
diseases that attack many people at the same time in the same geographic region.
Communicable disease
diseases that may be transmitted directly or indirectly from one individual to another.
Opportunists
exist as part of the normal microbial flora but can become pathogenic under certain conditions and result in disease.
Local infection
infection caused by microorganisms lodging and multiplying at one point in a tissue and remaining in that tissue.
Mixed infection
infection caused by two or more organisms.
Indigenous (native) infection
infections caused by bacteria that are normally nonpathogenic and that normally inhabit the digestive tract.
Infection
initiated in a host by a parasite
Pathogenicity
the ability to produce pathological changes and disease.
Contamination
the act of introducing disease germs or infections material into an area or substance.
Toxemia
the distribution throughout the body of poisonous products of bacteria growing in a focal or local site, thus producing generalized symptoms, which may include fever, diarrhea, vomiting, either an increase or decrease in pulse and respiration, and eventually shock and death. (In cases of tetanus, the nervous system is especially affected, while in cases of diphtheria both nerves and muscles are involved).
Reservoir
the natural habitat of a disease-causing organism (human host).
Host
the organism from which a parasite obtains its nourishment (person who has the disease)
Bacteremia
the presence of bacteria in the blood (can lead to death due to sepsis or toxic shock).
Viremia
the presence of viruses in the blood.
Necrobiosis
the process by which the epithelial layer of the skin continually dries, sloughs off, and is replaced with new cells. When the dead skin falls away, bacterial colonies are removed along with it. The eyes possess a mechanical barrier to pathogens in the form of tears. Since the eyes are continuously exposed to the environment, the process of blinking traps airborne particles, which are then washed away by tears. Tears also contain chemicals that are chemical defenses against infection.
Attenuation
the reduction of a microorganism's virulence by diluting or weakening the microbe to reduce or abolish its pathogenicity.
Virulence
the relative power and degree of pathogenicity possessed by organisms to produce disease (the ability of the microorganism to survive).
Natural active immunity
the result of developing a disease and recovering from it.
Natural passive immunity
the result of placental transfer of antibodies in the uterus, or from the transfer of antibodies in the mother's first breast milk, which is known as colostrum.
Resistance
the sum total of body mechanisms that interpose barriers to the progress of invasion, multiplication of infectious agents, or damage by their toxic products (the ability of the human to defend against the pathogen).
