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What is epidemeology?
The study of the patterns, causes and factors affecting the health and disease in a population.
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What is a communicable disease?
An infectious disease that is able to be transferred from one organism to another.
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What is a contagious disease?
An infectious, communicable disease that is able to be transferred from one organism to another with ease.
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What is a zoonotic disease?
An infectious disease that is able to be transmitted directly between different species of animals, including human to animal and animal to human transmission.
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What does the term incidence refer to?
The number of NEW cases in a given population. Can be expressed by incidence proportion.
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What does the term morbidity refer to?
The rate of diseased people to non disease people as could be expressed by 2 per 1000.
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What does the term mortality rate refer to?
The rate of deaths from a disease within a given population as could be expressed by 7 per 100 000.
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What is a sporadic disease?
A disease that only occaisionally within a given population, seeming to pop up.
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What is an endemic disease?
A disease that continually infects a given population, for example aids could be said to be endemic in Africa.
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What is an epidemic?
Refers to the outbreak of a disease, showing a higher than normal rates in a given population.
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What is a pandemic disease?
The outbreak of a disease, showing higher than normal rates on a global or international scale.
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What are the components of the chain of infection?
- Source: The pathogen itself
- Reservoir: Where the pathogen is held in large numbers, it could be an organism, a river, a crop etc.
- Portal of exit: How it exits its reservoir or its host organism. Eg. sneezing, or perhaps it is carried from the soil on the bottom of shoes.
- Mode of transmission: Is it direct or indirect? Contact, droplet or airborne?
- Portal of entry: The way it gets into an organism. Inspiration, ingestion, animal bite etc.
- Susceptability of host: How easily a host can become infected. Does it relate to age, sex, vaccination status and so on.
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What is a carrier?
A carrier is a person (or organism) that is carrying a pathogen, but is not suffering disease. They can pass the pathogen onto other people.
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What is a passive carrier?
A carrier who never actually catches the disease.
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What is an incubatory carrier?
A carrier who can transmit the disease while it is still in its incubatory form.
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What is an active carrier?
A person who has fully recovered from the disease but is still a carrier.
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What is a covalescent carrier?
A person who is still recovering from the disease and can infect other people.
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What are 5 important animal reservoirs of disease?
- Birds
- Rodents
- Dogs and Cats
- Cattle
- Mosquitos
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What are 5 important non-living reservoirs of disease?
- Air
- Soil
- Dust
- Food
- Milk
- Water
- Fomites
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What are fomites?
Non living, inanimate objects that have become reservoirs of infection.
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What are the 5 principle modes of transmission?
- Airborne - Carried in the air
- Droplet - Suspended in water droplets
- Contact - By direct contact between people
- Vehicular - By fomites
- Vector - By biting from animals, or by injection
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What are 7 ways communicable diseases are most commonly transmitted?
- 1. Direct: Skin to skin
- 2. Direct: Mucous membrane to mucous membrane
- 3. Indirect: Airborne or droplets
- 4. Indirect: Contact with contaminated food, water or fecal material
- 5. Indirect: Arthropod vectors eg. mosquitos
- 6.Indirect: Contact with fomites
- 7. Indirect: Blood to blood product or parental injection.
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What are healthcare associated infections (HAIs)?
Infections acquired while in hospital or another healthcare facility.
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What are community acquired infections (CAIs)?
An infection acquired outside of a healthcare setting.
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What is an iatrogenic infection?
One that is acquired through surgery or treatment.
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What are the most common ways HAIs are transmitted.
- Contact - Doctor to patient, patient to patient, fomites.
- Droplet - From other patients, Doctors.
- Airborne - From other patients, Doctors.
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