Ch36 Test Questions & Answers Epidemiology And Public Health

Prescott's Microbiology, 11e (Willey)

Chapter 36 Epidemiology and Public Health Microbiology

1) An infected individual who is a potential source of infection for others and plays an important role in the epidemiology of the disease is a(n) ________.

A) carrier

B) reservoir

C) host

D) index case

2) Precautions that can be taken by individuals to prevent travel-related infectious diseases include ________.

A) wash hands with soap and water frequently

B) get or update vaccinations appropriate for specific destinations

C) take antibiotics prophylactically for potential bacterial infections

D) wash hands with soap and water frequently and get or update vaccinations appropriate for specific destinations

E) wash hands with soap and water frequently, get or update vaccinations appropriate for specific destinations, and take antibiotics prophylactically for potential bacterial infections

3) Consider the links in the chain of infection. Which of the links is broken when the susceptible members of the population are immunized?

A) The agent

B) Virulence

C) Dose

D) Susceptibility

4) Consider the links in the chain of infection. Which of the links is broken when hands are thoroughly washed?

A) The agent

B) Exposure

C) Virulence

D) Susceptibility

5) _______ are the leading cause of health care–associated diseases.

A) Bacteria

B) Viruses

C) Protozoa

D) Fungi

6) The most common types of health care–associated infections are ________.

A) respiratory tract infections

B) urinary tract infections

C) gastrointestinal tract infections

D) skin infections

7) The Centers for Disease Control estimate that ________ of all hospital patients acquire some type of health care–associated infection.

A) between 1 and 5 percent

B) between 5 and 10 percent

C) between 10 and 20 percent

D) about 50 percent

8) Most organisms that cause health care–associated infections come from endogenous sources.

9) Which of the following is a major cause of health care–associated infections in the United States?

A) Alpha hemolytic streptococci

B) Streptococcus pyogenes

C) Staphylcoccus aureus

D) Streptococcus pneumoniae

10) Which of the following frequently causes health care–associated infections of the GI tract?

A) Clostridium difficile

B) Salmonella enteritidis

C) Staphylococcus aureus

D) Escherichia coli

11) The first epidemiologist was ________.

A) Robert Koch

B) Louis Pasteur

C) John Snow

D) Edward Jenner

12) Surveillance of health issues is typically accomplished by two methods: population surveys and antibiotic treatment.

13) Public health surveillance is the proactive evaluation of ________.

A) genetic background

B) environmental conditions

C) human behaviors and lifestyle choices

D) emerging infectious agents

E) All of the choices are correct.

14) Which of the following terms refers to a disease that maintains a relatively steady, low-level frequency at a moderately regular interval?

A) Sporadic

B) Hyperendemic

C) Endemic

D) Epidemic

15) Which of the following terms refers to a sudden increase in the occurrence of a disease above the expected level?

A) Sporadic

B) Hyperendemic

C) Endemic

D) Epidemic

16) The first case in an epidemic is called the ________ case.

A) break

B) index

C) prime

D) alpha

17) A(n) ________ is an increase in disease occurrence within a large population over a very wide region (usually the world).

A) endemic

B) pandemic

C) epidemic

D) sporadic disease

18) The sudden, unexpected occurrence of a disease in a limited segment of a population is called a(n) ________.

A) outbreak

B) incident

C) epidemic

D) sporadic disease

19) Which of the following is the major focus of epidemiologists?

A) The discovery of factors essential to disease occurrence

B) The development of methods for disease prevention

C) Measuring the level of resistance to antimicrobial agents

D) Both the discovery of factors essential to disease occurrence and the development of methods for disease prevention

E) Both the discovery of factors essential to disease occurrence and measuring the level of resistance to antimicrobial agents

F) Both the development of methods for disease prevention and measuring the level of resistance to antimicrobial agents

20) An epidemic is ________.

A) a disease that maintains a steady low-level frequency

B) when a disease occurs occasionally and at erratic intervals in the human population

C) a sudden increase in the occurrence of a disease above the expected level

D) a sudden unexpected occurrence of a disease in a limited segment of a population

21) After an infectious disease has been identified in a population, the next step is to correlate the disease outbreak with a specific organism.

22) A ________ rate measures the number of individuals who become ill as a result of a specific disease within a susceptible population during a specific time period.

A) prevalence

B) morbidity

C) mortality

D) index

23) The ________ rate refers to the total number of individuals infected at any one time regardless of when the disease began.

A) prevalence

B) morbidity

C) mortality

D) index

24) The ________ rate is the relationship of the number of deaths from a given disease to the total number of cases of the disease.

A) prevalence

B) morbidity

C) mortality

D) index

25) A ________ epidemic is characterized by a sharp rise to a peak then a rapid, but not as pronounced, decline in the number of individuals infected.

A) propagated

B) common-source

C) herd

D) sporadic

26) A ________ epidemic is characterized by a relatively slow and prolonged rise then a gradual decline in the number of individuals infected.

A) propagated

B) common-source

C) herd

D) sporadic

27) Which type of epidemic usually results from a single contaminated source such as food?

A) Propagated

B) Common-source

C) Herd

D) Sporadic

28) Which type of epidemic usually results from the introduction of a single infected individual into a susceptible population?

A) Propagated

B) Common-source

C) Herd

D) Sporadic

29) ________ immunity is an epidemiological concept that explains the resistance of a population to infection and the spread of an infectious organism due to the immunity of a high percentage of the population.

A) Natural

B) Experimental

C) Herd

D) Innate

30) An organism that is able to be transmitted from one host to another is said to be ________.

A) infective

B) virulent

C) pathogenic

D) communicable

31) The natural site or environmental location in which the causative organism is normally found is called the ________.

A) reservoir

B) source

C) carrier

D) animate phase

32) Which of the following is a mechanism by which new susceptible individuals enter a population?

A) Birth of new individuals

B) Migration of individuals into the population

C) Enhancement of immune systems through immunization

D) Birth of new individuals and migration of individuals into the population

33) A major, genetically determined change in the antigenic character of a pathogen is called antigenic drift.

34) The location where a disease-causing organism is normally found is called the ________.

35) Which of the following is considered an emerging or reemerging disease?

A) Escherichia coli O157:H7

B) Zika 

C) Cyclosporiasis

D) All of the choices are correct.

36) Which of the following contributes to the emergence of new diseases?

A) Rapid transportation systems and the mobility of the population

B) Ecological disruption such as the loss of predators and the destruction of rain forests

C) Increased drug usage

D) All of the choices are correct.

37) An infection that is incubating in a patient at the time of admission and which develops clinical symptoms during the patient's stay in a healthcare facility is not considered to be a health care–associated infection.

38) Health care–associated infections may develop within any health care facility.

39) Chlorination of water supplies represents an epidemiological technique directed at ________.

A) eliminating susceptible individuals

B) eliminating sources of infection

C) sterilizing water

D) improving the palatability of water

40) Which of the following is used to reduce or eliminate the source of an infection?

A) Treatment of sewage to reduce water contamination

B) Destruction of vectors by spraying insecticides

C) Destruction of an animal reservoir of the infectious agent

D) All of the choices are used to reduce or eliminate the source of an infection.

41) Active immunization of a population will raise the general level of herd immunity.

42) Antigens in vaccines are mixed with an adjuvant to enhance the rate and degree of immunization.

43) Vaccines using inactivated pathogens do not stimulate cell-mediated immunity as effectively as vaccines using attenuated pathogens.

44) The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act identifies select agents and identifies a Tier 1 subset of particularly hazardous microorganisms.

45) It is likely that an act of ________ will be defined by a sudden spike in an unusual disease reported to the public health system.

46) The intentional or threatened use of viruses, bacteria, fungi, or toxins from living organisms to produce death or disease in humans, animals, and plants is known as ________.

A) chemical warfare

B) bioterrorism

C) zoonosis

D) All of the choices are correct.

47) The ________ ________ ________ is responsible for the monitoring of infectious disease and the implementation of prevention and control strategies worldwide.

48) Which agency is specifically responsible for the monitoring of disease and the implementation of prevention and control strategies in the United States?

A) World Health Organization

B) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

C) Food and Drug Administration

D) Department of Health and Human Services

49) The impact of public health measures in the United States has resulted in a(n) ________ in infectious disease-related deaths over the past 100 years.

A) increase

B) no change

C) decrease

50) Over the past 100 years, the number of deaths due to infectious disease has ________ while the deaths due to metabolic diseases have ________.

A) decreased; increased

B) increased; remained the same

C) increased; decreased

D) remained the same; increased

E) decreased; remained the same

51) A group of scientists that are studying the spread of Lyme disease suspect that it is spreading north due to movement of the tick vector brought about by climate change. What application(s) below would assist with this study?

A) Remote sensing

B) DNA fingerprinting

C) Geographic information systems

D) Remote sensing and geographic information systems

E) DNA microarrays

52) A graduate student is researching the spread of mosquito vectors and dengue fever into the southern United States. She has collected a substantial amount of data regarding the locations where the vector has been detected as well as the incidence of the dengue fever virus in both the vector population and in humans. What application would enable her to effectively illustrate patterns of vector and disease spread?

A) Geographic information systems

B) Remote sensing

C) DNA microarrays

D) DNA fingerprinting

53) Which of the following is an example of a noncommunicable infectious disease?

A) Influenza

B) Diabetes mellitus

C) Urinary bladder infection

D) Strep throat

54) Ebola Fever would be classified as a communicable noninfectious disease.

55) Consider the following hypothetical situation. Researchers doing influenza surveillance involving molecular analysis of recent isolates of the virus notice a major change in the H and N antigens. What is a likely outcome?

A) The number of cases of influenza will increase significantly.

B) The number of cases of influenza will decrease significantly.

C) There will be no significant change in the number of cases of influenza.

56) Increasing global population, overcrowding, and international travel have contributed to many changes in epidemiological trends of infectious disease. Which of the following would have been just as likely to occur a century ago as today?

A) West Nile encephalitis, a zoonotic disease caused by a virus first isolated in Uganda, is now a world-wide pandemic in human and animals.

B) An individual was placed under a government-ordered isolation after traveling while infected with a drug resistant strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 

C) The incidence of bubonic plague in humans, transmitted via the rat flea, is gradually increasing in the United States with most of the cases reported in the west.  

D) Gonorrhea, one of the oldest known STDs, is becoming increasingly difficult to treat due to multi-drug resistance strains of Neisseria gonorrhea.

57) The single most effective and practical way to prevent the spread of infection among patients is ________.

A) isolating patients in private rooms

B) attentiveness of health care providers and patients to hand washing

C) wearing gloves, gowns, and masks

D) placing patients in negative pressure rooms

58) Eight 10-year-olds in the community became sick within a 24-hour period with vomiting and diarrhea. Personnel from the health department interviewed the children and their families, attempting to determine the source of the illness. Which piece of information below is most suggestive of the common source?

A) All eight children go to the same school.

B) In two of the eight families, siblings were just beginning to show signs of illness at the time of the interview.

C) All eight children attended the same birthday party two days prior to becoming ill.

D) Five of the eight children ride the same school bus.

E) Six of the eight children are on the same soccer team, which practices three times/week.

59) Which of the following public health methods impacted the quality of life through the 20th century by lowering the incidence of many infectious diseases?

A) Water treatment

B) Strict sanitation guidelines

C) Antimicrobial agents

D) Immunizations

E) All of the choices are correct.

60) Over the past 100 years, the decrease in deaths due to infectious disease has been somewhat offset by an increase in death due to metabolic diseases.

61) Consider a community in which the vaccination rate for measles is 99 percent. Ryan, a 2-year-old with leukemia, has not received the measles vaccination because of his immunocompromised status. Ryan is unlikely to get measles because ________.

A) measles has been completely eradicated and is no longer a threat

B) there is substantial herd immunity in his community

C) he is protected by antibodies from his mother that crossed the placenta

D) the measles virus does not typically affect children with leukemia

62) A disease will be ________ likely to circulate in a community with a high percentage of individuals who are immune to the disease.

A) more

B) less

63) The ________ of a disease compares the number of people with the disease to the number of individuals in the population.

64) To determine the frequency of an infectious disease event, epidemiologists calculate which of the following?

A) Number of individuals in the total population

B) Number of individuals exposed to the pathogen

C) Number of infected individuals

D) All of the answers are correct.

65) The best measure for preventing health care–associated infections is to prohibit visitors from bringing flowers and balloons to patients.

66) Which of the following is NOT a Tier 1 agent?

A) Bacillus anthracis

B) Hantavirus

C) Clostridium botulinum toxin

D) Yersinia pestis

67) The Department of Health and Human Services maintains the system for monitoring bioterrorism events.

68) The Laboratory Response Network is associated with all of the following EXCEPT the ________.

A) CDC

B) FBI

C) EPA

D) APHL

69) The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act governs the ________ of select agents.

A) possession

B) transport

C) use

D) All of the answers are correct.

70) Considering well-known bioterrorism attacks in the United States, how were the Rajneeshees able to infect so many people with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium?

A) By releasing the agent in a local swimming pool

B) By releasing the agent in a hospital waiting room

C) By contaminating local restaurant salad bars with the agent

D) By mailing envelopes containing the agent to local election offices