Principles of Epidemiology and Microbiology
Lesson
1: Introduction to Disease Transmission and Epidemiology
Exercises: Lesson 1
EXERCISES, LESSON 1
INSTRUCTIONS. The following exercises are to be answered by marking the lettered response that best answers the question or best completes the sentence or by writing the answer in the space provided.
After you have completed all the exercises, turn to "Solutions to Exercises" at the end of the lesson and check your answers.
1. In every major combat action in which the United States has participated, the
leading cause of ineffectiveness has been:
a. Shell shock and other neuroses
b. Venereal disease.
c. Fragmentation wounds.
d. Poor leadership.
e. Disease and non-combat injury.
f. AWOL and desertion.
2. The health of a military command is the responsibility of the:
a. Commander.
b. Surgeon.
c. Unit aidman.
d. Physician assistant.
e. Preventive medicine specialist.
3. Of the following listed terms, several may apply to an individual at one time or
another. Which term is not used interchangeably with one of the others?
a. Reservoir.
b. Agent
c. Host.
d. Case.
e. Carrier.
4. Malaria is a type of:
a. Intestinal disease.
b. Respiratory disease.
c. Venereal disease.
d. Arthropod-borne disease.
5. Which of the following are links in the chain of disease transmission? (More than
one response is correct.)
a. Susceptible.
b. Epidemiology.
c. Mode of transmission.
d. Reservoir.
e. Isolation.
f. Personal hygiene.
6. Carriers of communicable diseases and persons with sub-clinical or asymptomatic
cases of diseases constitute a phenomenon known as the _________________.
7. Disease-producing agents may be either _______________________ or
_________________________ agents.
8. Match each of the terms in Column I with an appropriate definition listed in
Column II.
Column I Column II
a. ____Pathogenicity (1) Ability to overcome the resistance
of a susceptible.
b. ____Virulence (2) Capacity for reproduction in air as
well as in the absence of air.
c. ____Resistance (3) Ability to withstand the action of
disinfectant or antibiotic.
d. ____Infectivity (4) Ability to cause a disease.
(5) Vulnerability to detection by
laboratory methods.
(6) Ability to invade a susceptible
multiply, and effect a change.
9. The source (reservoir) of a disease may be a _____________, ____________, or
______________.
10. Means of disease transmission include: ______________________, __________,
_________________, ______________, and ______________________.
11. Animals (such as rodents) and arthropods, which live on such animals and which
are capable of transmitting diseases to humans are referred to as disease
______________________.
12. The final recipient of a disease agent is known as the __________.
13. The fact several factors, each of which may constitute a link in the chain of
disease transmission, may occur at the same time is known as the concept of
___________________________.
14. Which link in the chain of disease transmission is best broken by:
a. Food service sanitation? ________________.
b. Isolation? _________________.
c. Personal hygiene? _____________________.
d. Quarantine? ______________________.
e. Immunization? _____________________.
f. Proper ventilation? ____________________________.
15. The study of the distribution and dynamics of disease in human populations is
known as _______________________. This study may be expressed in simplified
terms by four questions:
a. ___________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________
16. The three general uses of the science of epidemiology are:
a. To discover the _________________________ of a disease.
b. To discover how a disease of known origin is _________________.
c. As an ___________________________.
Check Your Answers on Next Page
