Public Health

Question 1

What is Epidemiology?

Answer 1

A field where health professionals trace diseases and recommend control.
including infectious and non infectious diseases

Question 2

What is an epidemic?

Answer 2

Increased occurrence of a disease in a particular population during a specific period.

Question 3

What is common source epidemic?

Answer 3

a group of people is exposed at one time to a particular disease agent from a common source of contamination

Question 4

What is an example of a common source epidemic?

Answer 4

An outbreak of botulism from people eating at a single restaurant

Question 5

What is progated epidemics?

Answer 5

an infectious agent is transmitted from one host to another via direct contact or a vector.

Question 6

What is an example of a progated epidemic?

Answer 6

Measles outbreak from one student to many others

Question 7

What is a pandemics?

Answer 7

epidemics that affect several countries or major portions of the world. Plague in Europe, killed 25 M people.

Question 8

What is an endemic?

Answer 8

a disease that is constantly present in a population. Measles, gonorrhea are examples of these disease endemic in the US.

Question 9

What is mortality?

Answer 9

the number of deaths in a population.

Question 10

What is mortality rate?

Answer 10

the number of deaths in a population per 1,000

Question 11

What is morbidity?

Answer 11

the number of cases of disease in a population

Question 12

What is prevalence rate?

Answer 12

describes the occurrence of existing cases of disease in a population during a specified period of time.

Question 13

What is incidence rate?

Answer 13

the number of new cases of disease in a population from a previously nondiseased persons in a given time period.

the number of new cases of disease in a population from a previously nondiseased persons in a given time period.

is the number of new cases of disease in a population from a previously nondiseased persons in a given time period

Question 14

How are epidemiological diseases analyzed?

Answer 14

By disease rates and time

Question 15

What are disease rates and time?

Answer 15

changes in morbidity and mortality rates with time suggest that contributing factors for the disease have changed.

Question 16

What are examples of disease rates and times?

Answer 16

influenza, highs and lows versus the season. Arthropod transmitted diseases occur during times of the year that favor these vectors

Question 17

What are examples of disease rates and people?

Answer 17

Morbidity and mortality rates higher with infants and the elderly.
Morbidity and mortality rates differ with sex of the individual
Morbidity and mortality rates differ among races.

Question 18

What are examples of disease rates and places?

Answer 18

STD’s occur more frequently in the Southeastern US.

Question 19

What is nosocomial infections?

Answer 19

Hospital acquired infections, 10% of people admitted to a hospital acquire an infection during their stay

Question 20

How is epidemiology data collected?

Answer 20

interviews and diagnostic test screening

Question 21

What is the biases associated with interviews?

Answer 21

validity and accuracy in question due to reluctance of patient to be truthful

Question 22

How should diagnostic test be completed?

Answer 22

Accurate, sensitive and specific, it must be able to differentiate people with the disease and those that do not have the disease

Question 23

What is the different between test in series and parallel?

Answer 23

Tests in parallel, person is considered positive if any test demonstrates positive. Breast cancer, physical lump detection, mammography, MRI.

Question 24

How should tests be completed?

Answer 24

reliable, reproducible or both.

Question 25

How should screening test be completed?

Answer 25

Screening test should performed on a population with a high frequency of the disease

Question 26

What are experimental studies?

Answer 26

the investigator controls the influence of factors that cause a disease. Ex, study of the influence of fluoride added to water supplies to control dental carries

Question 27

What are observational studies?

Answer 27

the conditions are uncontrolled

Question 28

What are types of observational studies?

Answer 28

(Retrospective studies), comparisons are made between a group of persons who have the disease and those that do not. (Prospective studies), involves following a group of people free of a given disease, but who vary in exposure to the suspected disease associated characteristic

Question 29

What is an example of a prospective study?

Answer 29

180,000 white males (50-60 yrs old), annual smoking history and deaths from lung cancer, correlation with lung cancer and number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Question 30

Why are biological agents used?

Answer 30

Biological agents are inexpensive, nuclear is very expensive. Microorganisms are readily available. Scientific knowledge to produce these is available, many unemployed from the USSR. Biological weapons easy to transport, without detection, Airport security does not pick them up. Effect of the attack not known for days. Small attacks generate fear.

Question 31

How are biological agents turned into weapons?

Answer 31

Modify virulence Vaccine resistant Antibiotic resistance Small particle size, hang time in the air increased, therefore more regional infectivity

Question 32

What is weaponizing?

Answer 32

The development of biological agents into effective agents of mass destruction

Question 33

What are signs of an epidemiological attack?

Answer 33

Unusual appearance of disease Multiple disease entities in the patient, ie anthrax, plague, smallpox. Large number of casualties, point source outbreak. Apparent transmission by aerosol, over a large region.

Question 34

What are the CDC bioterrorism agents?

Answer 34

There are three categories A,B or C

Question 35

What is a category A agent?

Answer 35

High priority agents that pose a risk to national security because of easy dissemination or transmission person to person. High degree of mortality, cause social panic, require special health preparedness.

Question 36

What are types of A agents?

Answer 36

``` Anthrax Botulism Plague Smallpox Tularemia Viral hemorrhagic fevers, Ebola ```

Question 37

What is a category B agent?

Answer 37

moderate dissemination, moderate mortality.

Question 38

What are types of B agents?

Answer 38

``` Brucellosis Glanders Q fever Staph enterotoxin B Epsilon toxin Clostridium perfringens Ricin toxin, from the Castor Bean ```

Question 39

What is a category C agent?

Answer 39

emerging pathogens that could be engineered for high mortality

Question 40

What are types of C agents?

Answer 40

Hantavirus Multiple drug resistant TB Tickborne, encephalitis, hemorrhagic fever viruses Yellow fever

Question 41

What is beneficial use of Botulinum?

Answer 41

Botox