Immune Evasion and Challenges in Treatment and Control Flashcards
What do endoparasites to to avoid detection?
Mimic the host’s antigens.
What do endoparasites do to reduce chances of destruction?
Modify the host’s immune response.
What does antigenic variation allow?
Allows parasites to change between different antigens during the course of infection of a host. May also allow re-infection of the same host with the new variant.
What is latency?
Where a virus escapes immune surveillance by integrating their genome into the host genome and existing in an inactive state.
When will a virus in latency become active again?
When favourable conditions arise.
What is epidemiology?
The study of the outbreak and spread of infectious disease.
What is the herd immunity threshold?
The density of resistant hosts in a population required to prevent an epidemic.
How do vaccines work?
They contain antigens that will elicit an immune response.
What makes it difficult to find treatments?
The similarities between host and parasite metabolism make it difficult to find drug compounds that only affect the parasite.
What needs to be reflected in the design of vaccines?
Antigenic variation.
What can the difficulties can arise with parasites that are difficult to culture in the lab?
It makes it difficult to design vaccines for them.
When do challenges in treatment occur?
When parasites spread rapidly due to overcrowding or tropical climates.
Where can overcrowding occur?
In refugee camps that result from war or natural disasters or rapidly growing cities in LEDCs.
What challenges can arise in the face of overcrowding?
Treatment and control programmes are difficult to achieve.
What can be the only practical control strategies in the face of overcrowding?
Civil engineering projects to improve sanitation combined with coordinated vector control.
