Basic Term
A field of science that studies health problems within populations.
What is epidemiology?
The occurrence of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior.
What is an Epidemic?
The living or nonliving in or on which an infectious agent lives, grows, and multiplies, and on which it depends for its survival in nature.
What is a Reservoir?
An individual who has been exposed to and harbors a disease-causing organism and who has done so for some time, even though the person may have recovered from the disease.
What is an Active Carrier?
____ is the uninterrupted and immediate transfer of an infectious agent from one person to another.
What is a Direct Transmission?
The cause of disease
What is Etiology?
An epidemic that affects or attacks the population of an extensive region, country, or continent.
What is a Pandemic?
An animal that transmits infection by conveying the infectious agent from one host to another.\
What is a Vector?
An individual who harbors a pathogen and who, although in the recovery phase of the course of the disease, is still infectious.
What is a Convalescent Carrier?
Occurs when an agent is transferred or carried by some intermediate item, organism, means, or process to a host, resulting in disease.
What is an Indirect Transmission?
The invasion or colonization of the body by pathogenic microorganisms
What is Infection?
Refers to the ongoing, usual, or constant presence of a disease in a community or among a group of people.
What is Endemic?
An inanimate object such as a piece of clothing, a door handle, or a utensil that can harbor an infectious agent and is capable of being a means of transmission.
What is a Fomite?
An individual who has been exposed to and harbors a pathogen, is in the beginning stages of the disease, is displaying symptoms, and has the ability to transmit the disease.
What is an Incubatory Carrier?
Occurs when droplets or dust particles carry the pathogen to the host and cause infection.
The scientific study of disease
What is pathology?
Can "catch" a disease from a carrier
What is an Communicable?
An infectious organism in animals that can be transmitted to humans through direct contact, a fomite, or a vector.
What is Zoonosis?
An individual who has been exposed to and harbors a pathogen but has not become ill or shown any of the symptoms of the disease. This could be referred to as a subclinical case.
What is an Healthy Carrier?
Occurs when an arthropod conveys the infectious agent.
What is a Vector-borne Transmission?
The ability of a program to produce benefits among those who are offered the program.
What is Effectiveness?
This occurs occasionally, or at regular intervals of time, or only in a few geographical places.
What is Sporadic?
_____ contains, spreads, or harbors an infectious organism.
What is a Carrier?
Presence in Disease: The microorganism must be found in abundance in all organisms suffering from the disease but should not be found in healthy organisms. This establishes a correlation between the microbe and the disease.
Isolation and Culture: The microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in pure culture. This step ensures that the microbe can be studied independently of other organisms.
Induction of Disease: The cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism. This demonstrates that the microbe is capable of causing the disease.
Re-isolation: The microorganism must be re-isolated from the inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified as being identical to the original specific causative agent. This confirms that the same microbe is responsible for the disease in both the original and experimental hosts.
What are Koch's postulates?
Involves an inanimate object that conveys an infectious agent to a host.
What is a Vehicle-borne Transmission?