Exam 3 Will Cover the Following Topics:
- Control of Microbial Growth (includes physical and chemical factors as well as chemotherapeutic agents).
- Prions and Prion Diseases
- Infection and Disease (Disease Processes)
- Epidemiology
- Host Defense Systems
Some sample essay questions for exam 3 (Thursday May 12th):
1. Based on your knowledge of microbiology design a perfect bacterial pathogen. Be realistic in your answer. [For example, it can only be spread one major way – not every way possible!] Explain why you gave it the characteristics you did.
OR Design your own pathogen and justify your answers to each of the following.
a) spread by ___
b) portal of entry and exit
c) lives intra- or extra-cellularly
d) produces exotoxins or endotoxins
e) avoids the immune system by ___
f) affects ___ system.
A similar question is to explain the same things using a bacterial pathogen that you have researched.
2. Explain the factors that contribute to the development of nosocomial infections and the control methods that are taken to prevent them.
OR Discuss nosocomial infections in terms of the following:
a) What are nosocomial infections?
b) What factors lead to nosocomial infections?
c) What bacteria commonly cause nosocomial infections?
d) What levels of control are taken to prevent these infections?
3. Briefly explain how a specific infectious bacterial disease organism causes disease.
4. Discuss the factors that lead to the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases?
5. Discuss the reasons why, even though we know a great deal about what causes infections diseases and how to control the spread of disease, people continue to sicken and die of infectious disease. (Apply this to the U.S. only.)
6. Discuss the various ways by which food is preserved based on what you know about the ways that microbial growth is controlled – include the advantages and disadvantages of each.
7. Thoroughly discuss the control of diseases in hospitals. Include levels of control as well as problems that arise in the control of diseases in hospitals. [This question includes the answer to number 2 above and might also include the use of antiseptics, disinfectants, and sterilization techniques to control pathogens in the hospital setting.]
8. Discuss the side-effects of antimicrobial therapy. Be sure to give examples of each.
9. Compare and contrast the production and effects of exotoxins and endotoxins by bacteria.
10. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a normal flora.
11. Explain how the complement system works to destroy or incapacitate pathogens.
12. Explain the ways that constitutive and induced defenses interact.
