chapter ; 7 communicable diseases

Question 1

infections of public health importance are primarily those that are communicable; that is, they can be transmitted from person to person, or from animals or the physical environment to humans

Answer 1

yes

Question 2

noncommunicable diseases can use vaccination, drugs, antibiotics

Answer 2

yes

Question 3

communicable diseases can cause widespread or epidemic disease, but they can also become endemic and be regularly present and routine causes of death

Answer 3

yes

Question 4

RNA viruses pose the greatest danger of pandemic
(replicate rapidly and have the potential for mutation with each replication)

Answer 4

yes

Question 5

there are a large number of RNA viruses in animals and many have the potential to cross over to humans

Answer 5

yes

Question 6

Koch’s postulates, intended for bacteria, hold that in order to definitively establish a cause and effect relationship, all of the following four conditions must be met

Answer 6

• the bacteria must be present in every case of the disease
• the bacteria must be isolated from the host with the disease and grown in pure culture
• the specific disease must be produced when a pure culture of the bacteria is inoculated into a healthy susceptible host
• the the bacteria must be recoverable from the experimentally infected host

Question 7

the modern and improved ‘modern Koch’s postulates’

Answer 7

• individual association between the presence of the pathogen and the presence of a disease in human beings
• isolation of the pathogen through culturing or genetic sequencing of the pathogen from most, of not all, of those the disease
• transmission of the identical pathogen to another individual who develops the same disease, thereby definitively establishing that a potential pathogen is a contributory cause of the disease

Question 8

examples of methods of transmission for communicable diseases

Answer 8

• insects
• other animals
• airborne
• sexual transmission
• water/food
• fecal/oral
  -transfusions/blood/contaminated needles
• transplacental
• breastfeeding
• contaminated articles including contaminated needles

Question 9

diseases transmitted by the respiratory route generally have the highest R0

Answer 9

yes

Question 10

the period of communicability is how long they can transmit the disease

Answer 10

yes

Question 11

chronic carriers are individuals who have recovered from the acute disease continue to have the ability to transmit the disease

Answer 11

yes

Question 12

asymptomatic transmission is the ability to transmit the disease before the occurrence of symptoms or in the absence of symptoms

Answer 12

yes

Question 13

a range of public health tools are available to reduce transmission of communicable diseases

Answer 13

• barrier protections, including isolation and quarantine
• screening and contact tracing
• immunization designed to protect populations as well as individuals
• antibiotic and antiviral treatment
• elimination or eradication

Question 14

immunization refers to the strengthening of the immune system to prevent or control disease. transfusion of antibodies may be administered to achieve passive immunity, which may be used early in the disease to provide effective short term protection

Answer 14

yes

Question 15

traditional vaccines have been classified as inactivated vaccines (dead) and attenuated vaccines (live), and both can stimulate the bodies own antibody production

Answer 15

yes

Question 16

live vaccines utilize living but weakened organisms that also strongly stimulate cell mediated immunity and produce long term protection that more closely resembles the body’s own response to infection

Answer 16

yes