1. The number of persons currently infected with Mycobaterium tuberculosis is in the
a) thousands
b) hundreds of thousands
c) millions
d) hundreds of millions
e) billions
2. Normally you have to swallow about a billion Vibrio cholerae cells to get cholera. But if you first take antacids, you only need about a hundred thousand to get cholera. This suggests strongly that
a) antacids do not prevent diarrhea
b) antacids are powerful antibiotics
c) stomach acid is a protective barrier against cholera
d) the “normal” germs in your stomach are killed by the antacids and make room for the cholera germs
e) antacids weaken the immune response and leave you open to many infections, but especially sensitive to cholera
3. The Black Death is called Bubonic Plague because
a) the agent that causes it collects in the lymph nodes (“glands”) and causes swelling
b) the agent that causes it collects in the lungs and becomes an aerosol that is spread by coughing
c) the agent that causes it grows in the bloodstream causing death with 24-36 hours
d) the agent that causes it can survive inside phagocytes for a few days and evade the immune system
e) the physician who first described its symptoms was Pierre Comte du Boubonne
4. The infectious disease that killed the largest number of people in a single year is
a) typhoid fever
b) cholera
c) influenza
d) tuberculosis
e) bubonic plague
5. Cholera toxin poisons the body by causing the cells of the intestine to dump salt into the small intestine. As a result
a) the salt makes you thirsty and you drink so much fluid that you essentially drown
b) the salt is lost through excretion and you die from lack of sodium chloride
c) the salt dries all the “essential” bacteria that live in the gut and you get very weak because you become “germ free”
d) the resulting salt water in the gut is poisonous
e) the salt draws water from the cells to the gut and you die from loss of water
6. Scrapie is a disease of
a) Sheep
b) Humans
c) Beef cattle
d) Minks kept in crowded cages
e) Chimpanzees
7. Doctors sometimes prescribe antibiotics for treatment of influenza. The effect of antibiotic therapy for influenza is most likely
a) reduction in the time of symptoms by about one-half, that is about 4-6 days
b) complete cure within 48 hours
c) aggravation of the symptoms and a prolonged recovery period
d) conversion of the patient into a healthy carrier of influenza
e) generation of antibiotic resistant bacteria
8. Rehydration is an effective therapy for treating
a) cholera
b) tuberculosis
c) influenza
d) bubonic plague
e) kuru
9. A person who believes in the miasma theory of cholera would argue that
a) boiling all drinking water would protect against cholera
b) there is no protection against cholera because it is an inherited disease
c) building one’s house on a hill would protect against cholera
d) a diet rich in green vegetables and red meat would protect against cholera
e) treatment with purgatives and laxatives would protect against cholera
10. 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
11. Mimi, the heroine of the opera La Boheme, dies of what disease? (For the less traditional, Mimi the heroine of Rent is sick with (but does NOT die of) what disease?)
a) typhoid fever
b) cholera
c) influenza
d) tuberculosis
e) bubonic plague
12. John Snow is the person who
a) was the first to isolate and grow Mycobacterium tuberculosis
b) isolated influenza infected tissue from an obese woman buried in the permafrost in Brevig Mission, Alaska
c) invented the “acid-fast stain” for Mycobacterium tuberculosis
d) was the first to isolate and grow Vibrio cholerae
e) was the first to show that the infectious agent of cholera is carried in the drinking water
13. Which of the following diseases is caused by a virus?
a) typhoid fever
b) cholera
c) influenza
d) tuberculosis
e) bubonic plague
14. Tuberculin is
a) a highly effective vaccine against tuberculosis
b) a widely used, but only moderately effective vaccine against tuberculosis
c) a mild form of tuberculosis
d) the form of tuberculosis seen in AIDS patients
e) a skin test for exposure to tuberculosis
15. Between 1890 and 1910,
a) a pandemic of influenza swept through the world, killing 20-40 million people in the worst single year
b) an epidemic of influenza swept though Russia, reducing its population by almost 10% and delaying its entry into the industrialized West
c) an epidemic of influenza swept through the chicken farms of the East Coast of the United States, decimating the national supply of chickens
d) tuberculosis was introduced into the South America
e) bubonic plague became endemic in the rodents of the Southwestern United States
16. In the early 20th century, confinement in a sanitorium was widely used in the treatment and control of
a) typhoid fever
b) cholera
c) influenza
d) tuberculosis
e) bubonic plague
17. When the H5N1 flu was detected in chickens and people in Hong Kong a few years ago, the public health community was very worried because
a) it had the same H and N antigens as the 1918 pandemic strain
b) it came originally from pigs, just like the 1918 strain
c) it was 100% lethal to chickens and could have wiped out all the chickens in China
d) no H5 strain had ever been seen growing in humans before
e) this strain was highly transmissible from person to person
18. The bubonic plague is slower than pneumonic plague to kill its victims and also somewhat more survivable because
a) rat saliva has a compound that temporarily inhibits growth of Yersinia pestis
b) flea saliva has a compound that temporarily inhibits growth of Yersinia pestis
c) virulence factors needed for growth in warm blooded animals (humans) are not expressed in cold blooded animals (fleas)
d) human saliva has a compound that accelerates the onset of growth of Yersinia pestis
e) the aerosolized form of Yersinia pestis is somewhat less pathogenic than that carried by fleas
19. 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
20. 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.
21. AIDS and kuru are difficult to eradicate because the person who gets sick may have been infected many years before any symptoms develop. This is also often true of
a) typhoid fever
b) cholera
c) influenza
d) tuberculosis
e) bubonic plague
22. In the childrens’ nursery rhyme “Ring around a Rosie,” the Rosie probably refers to
a) the red rash associated with typhoid fever
b) the flowers planted on the mass graves of victims of epidemics
c) the red rash associated with bubonic plague
d) The floral symbol used to identify physicians in the middle ages
e) the red rings that formed around the cornea of the eye during recurrences of active tuberculosis
23. 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