Symbiotic Relationships Between Microbes and 3.

Pathogens attach to cellsa process called

Their Hosts (pp. 415418) adhesionvia a variety of structures or
1 symbiotic relationships attachment proteins called adhesion factors.
mutualism, in which both members benefit;
parasitism, in which a parasite benefits while Some bacteria and viruses lose the ability to
the host is harmed; and, morerarely, make adhesion factors called adhesins and
commensalism, in which one member benefits thereby become avirulent.
while the other is relatively unaffected. 4. Some bacteria interact to produce a sticky
Any parasite that causes disease is called a web of cells and polysaccharides
pathogen. called a biofilm that adheres to a surface.
2. Organisms called normal microbiota live in The Nature of Infectious Disease
and on the body. Some of these microbes are 1. Disease, also known as morbidity, is a
resident, whereas others are transient. condition sufficiently adverse
3. Opportunistic pathogens cause disease when to interfere with normal functioning of the
the immune system is suppressed, when normal body.
microbial antagonism (competition) 2. Symptoms are subjectively felt by a patient,
is affected by certain changes in the body, or whereas an outside observer
when a member of the normal microbiota is can observe signs.
introduced into an area of the body unusual for A syndrome is a group of symptoms and
that microbe. signs that collectively characterizes a particular
Reservoirs of Infectious Diseases of Humans abnormal condition.
1. Living and nonliving continuous sources of 3. Asymptomatic, or subclinical, infections may
infectious disease are called reservoirs of go unnoticed
infection. Animal reservoirs harbor agents of because of the absence of symptoms, even
zoonoses, which are diseases of animals that though clinical tests
may be spread to might reveal signs of disease.
humans via direct contact with the animal or its 4. Etiology is the study of the cause of a
waste products or via an arthropod. Humans disease.
may be asymptomatic carriers. 5. Nineteenth-century microbiologists proposed
2. Nonliving reservoirs of infection include soil, the germ theory of disease, and Robert Koch
water, and inanimate developed a series of essential conditions called
objects. Kochs postulates to prove the cause of
infectious diseases.
The Invasion and Establishment of Microbes in Certain circumstances can make the use of
Hosts: Infection these postulates difficult or even impossible.
6. Pathogenicity is a microorganisms ability to
1. Microbial contamination refers to the mere
cause disease;
presence of microbes in or on the body or Virulence is a measure of pathogenicity.
object. Microbial contaminants include Virulence factors, such as adhesion factors,
harmless resident and transient members of the extracellular enzymes, toxins, and
microbiota as well as pathogens, which after a antiphagocytic factors, affect
successful invasion cause an infection. the relative ability of a pathogen to infect and
cause disease.
2. Portals of entry of pathogens into the body 7. Toxemia is the presence in the blood of
include skin, mucous membranes, and the poisons called toxins.
placenta. These portals may be bypassed via the Exotoxins are secreted by pathogens into their
parenteral route, by which microbes are environment.
directly deposited into deeper tissues.
 Endotoxin, also known as lipid A, is released grouped by time course and severity, disease
from the cell wall of dead and dying Gram- may be described as acute, subacute, chronic,
negative bacteria and can have fatal effects. or latent.
8. Antitoxins are antibodies the host forms 2. When an infectious disease comes either
against toxins. directly or indirectly from another host, it is
9. The disease processthe stages of infectious considered a communicable disease.
diseasestypically consists of the incubation If a communicable disease is easily transmitted
period, prodromal period, illness, decline, from a reservoir or patient, it is called a
and convalescence. contagious disease.
Noncommunicable diseases arise either from
outside of hosts or from normal microbiota.
The Movement of Pathogens Out of Hosts: Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases (pp. 434
Portals 442)
of Exit 1. Epidemiology is the study of where and when
1. Portals of exit, such as the nose, mouth, and diseases occur and
urethra, allow pathogens to leave the body and of how they are transmitted within populations.
are of interest in studying the spread of disease. 2. Epidemiologists track the incidence (number
Modes of Infectious Disease Transmission of new cases)
1. Direct contact transmission of infectious and prevalence (total number of cases) of a
diseases involves person- to-person spread by disease and classify
body contact. Transmission of pathogens via disease outbreaks as endemic (usually present),
inanimate objects (called fomites) is called sporadic (occasional),
indirect contact transmission. epidemic (more cases than usual), or pandemic
2. Droplet transmission (a third type of contact (epidemic on more than one continent).
transmission) occurs when pathogens travel less 3. Descriptive epidemiology is the careful
than one meter in droplets of mucus to a new recording of data concerning a disease; it often
host as a result of speaking, coughing, or includes detection of the index casethe first
sneezing. case of the disease in a given area or
3. Vehicle transmission population.
Aerosols are clouds of water droplets that, Analytical epidemiology seeks to determine the
travel more than one meter in airborne probable cause of a disease.
transmission. Experimental epidemiology involves testing a
Fecal-oral infection can result from drinking hypothesis resulting from analytical studies.
sewage-contaminated water or from ingesting 4. Healthcare associated infections (HAIs)
fecal contaminants. (nosocomial infections) and healthcare
Bodily fluid transmission is the spread of associated diseases (nosocomial diseases) are
pathogens via blood, urine, saliva, or other acquired by patients or workers in health care
fluids. facilities. They may be exogenous (acquired
4. Vectors transmit pathogens between hosts. from the health care environment),
Biological vectors are animals, usually biting endogenous (derived from normal microbiota
arthropods, that serve as both host and vector that become opportunistic
of pathogens. while in the hospital setting), or iatrogenic
Mechanical vectors are not hosts to the (induced
pathogens they carry. by treatment or medical procedures).
Classification of Infectious Diseases (pp. 433
434)
1. There are various ways in which infectious
disease may be grouped and studied. When