1. Scrapie is a disease of
a) Sheep
b) Humans
c) Beef cattle
d) Minks kept in crowded cages
e) Chimpanzees
2. The initial description of CJD omitted one of the principle characteristics of the spongiform encephalopathies, namely the presence in the brain cells of
a) encephalons
b) blebs
c) mitochondria
d) holes
e) star-shaped bodies
3. What is Kuru
a. a village in Papua New Guinea
b. a tribal religion involving cannibalism
c. a language spoken in northern Australasia
d. a disease associated with cannibalism
e. an alcoholic beverage made from fermented yams
4. The American researcher who tracked the source of the degenerative brain disease among the Fore was
a. Carlton Gajdusek
b. Macfarlane Burnet
c. Jacob Creutzfeldt
d. Hermann Biggs
e. Robert Koch
5. Papua New Guinea is located
a. just north of Australia
b. just south of Australia
c. just east of Australia
d. just west of Australia
e. just southwest of Africa
6. Where would you be likely to find amyloid plaques
a. in the gall bladder
b. in milk and in the drinking water
c. in the brain
d. on a scientist’s wall
e. in the cytoplasm (“cell sap”) of a bacterium
7. Among the Fore tribes of New Guinea, the phrase: “I eat you” was
a. a serious threat leading to violence
b. a ritualized threat that actually prevented violence
c. a greeting
d. a joke
e. a corruption of the English “I greet you”
8. The first real hints about the cause of kuru came from a microscopic analysis of
a. brains
b. blood
c. sputum
d. lymph nodes
e. urine and feces
9. Scrapie is a disease of
a. humans
b. cows
c. sheep
d. mink
e. squirrels
10. The one group who seemed NOT to develop kuru (or not very often) was
a. adult married women
b. adult unmarried women
c. adult males
d. young boys
e. young girls
11. Which of these are researchers able to do with high efficiency:
a. give goats typhoid fever by injecting them with material from infected humans
b. give goats kuru by injecting them with material from infected humans
c. give goats scrapie by injecting them with material from infected sheep
d. give humans scrapie by injecting them with material from infected sheep
e. give humans kuru by injecting them with material from infected sheep
12. Because of the differences in the global distribution of kuru and CJD, epidemiologists would argue that
a) kuru is a better model to study the mode of transmission than CJD is
b) CJD is a better model to study the mode of transmission than kuru is
c) both kuru and CJD are excellent models for studying the mode of transmission
d) neither kuru nor CJD is a good model for studying the mode of transmission
e) neither kuru nor CJD is transmissible
13. What is a prion?
a) A small virus that has nucleic acid but no proteinaceous shell
b) A swelling of a lymph node (“gland”) in response to any of several infectious agents
c) an aberrant form of a normal protein that can cause diseases like CJD and kuru
d) the cellular organelle that allows all cells to synthesize proteins from amino acids
e) a slow virus, transmitted by blood-blood contact, that grows well in brain tissue.
14. The first successful transmission experiment with a human “spongiform encephalopathy” was the transmission of
a) CJD to a chimpanzee
b) kuru to a chimpanzee
c) CJD to a monkey
d) kuru to a monkey
e) kuru to a mouse
15. Which of these diseases is not in the same category as the others?
a) Kuru
b) Hansen’s Disease
c) Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome
d) Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy
e) Scrapie
16. The island where kuru was discovered was
a) Australia
b) New Zealand
c) New Guinea
d) Iceland
e) Great Britain
17. Which of these is the LEAST contagious?
a) Cholera
b) Tuberculosis
c) Influenza
d) Bubonic plague
e) Scrapie/kuru
18. “Slow Virus” is a term once used (incorrectly) to describe the causative agent of
a) Cholera
b) Tuberculosis
c) Influenza
d) Bubonic plague
e) Scrapie/kuru
19. The disease most associated with cannibalism is
a) Cholera
b) Tuberculosis
c) Influenza
d) Bubonic plague
e) Scrapie/kuru
20. Inoculation of the chimpanzee “Georgette” with brain material from a kuru patient
a) Induced an immune response and caused a partial reversal of the symptoms she developed after being infected with the scrapie agent
b) Led to all the behavioral symptoms typical of kuru, but not the brain pathology
c) Led to all the brain pathology typical of kuru but not the behavioral symptoms
d) Led to both the behavioral symptoms and the brain pathology typical of kuru
e) Had no effect on her at all. She remained healthy until she dies during an outbreak of tuberculosis in the primate facility several years later