Case Concepts
A standard set of criteria that ensures cases are consistently diagnosed
What is a case definition?
An individual who harbors a disease-causing organism and continues to harbor it for a long time
What is an active carrier?
Transmission that occurs when droplets or dust particles carry pathogen to new host.
What is airborne transmission?
Places where pathogens can enter and can infect the host
What is a portal of entry?
What is primary prevention?
The first disease case in a population
What is a primary case?
An individual who harbors pathogen, is in the recovery phase, and is still infectious
What is a convalescent carrier?
Transmission that involves an inanimate object to spread infectious agent to a new host.
A human or animal that is susceptible to a disease
What is a host?
This type of prevention doesn't require any behavior change on the part of the individual
The first disease case that the epidemiologist pays attention to
What is an index case?
An individual who harbors a pathogen but does not show any symptoms of the disease
What is a healthy carrier?
Transmission where the pathogen undergoes a part of it's life cycle within the host before being passed off to the next host
What is a biological transmission?
The path where a pathogen is leaving its host
What is a portal of exit?
What is secondary prevention?
A person who is infected because of contact with a primary case
What is a secondary case?
An individual who has just been exposed to a pathogen and is in the early stages of a disease and is able to transmit the disease to others
What is an incubatory carrier?
Transmission where the pathogen uses a host to spread and for a ride for nourishment
What is a mechanical transmission?
The cause of a disease
What is the agent?
A type of prevention that attempts to limit the damage of a disease that is currently occuring.
What is tertiary prevention?
An individual who shows all the symptoms of a disease but hasn't been diagnosed of the disease
What is a suspect case?
An individual who has harbors a pathogen and is able to spread the disease in different places or at different intervals.
What is an intermittent carrier?
Transmission that occurs when an arthropod conveys the infectious agent.
What is vector-borne transmission?
The habitat where an infectious agent lives, grows, and multiplies
What is a reservoir?
An attempt to restore an ill person back to a productive lifestyle
What is rehabilitation?