Infectious Disease Questions – An elite HSC Exam

Infectious disease Questions – Multiple Choice

Try answer these infectious disease questions, they should be done in exam conditions with 55 minutes. There are 28 marks in total. Good luck!

Question 1.

A patient presents with an infection which appears to have entered via the skin and spread through the blood, What type of infection would this be classified as?

• a) Localised
• b) Disseminated
• c) Systemic

Question 2.

The patient presents with an initial infection which infects the T cells, and continually remains in their system until all these T cells die. This is an example of a

• a) Acute infection
• b) Chronic persistent infection
• c) Latent persistent infection

Question 3.

Which of the following is not a method of horizontal transmission

• a) Venereal
• b) Faecal-oral
• c) Respiratory
• d) Transfusion
• e) Perinatal

Question 4.

Which of the following is not a method of vertical transmission.

• a) Prenatal
• b) Perinatal
• c) Postnatal
• d) Blood transfusion

Question 5.

Rabies is an example of a

• a) Biting arthropod zoonosis
• b) vertebra reservoir zoonosis
• c) Vertebrate reservoir/ arthropod infection
• d) Bacterial disease

Question 6.

Which of the following would account for the longevity of a virus in the surrounding environment.

• a) The genetic information being encoded in RNA – not DNA
• b) A mutation which creates a stronger envelope
• c) An increase in the number of spike proteins
• d) A mutation which prevents the formation of a capsid

Question 7.

Which of the following is not a reason for symptoms during a viral infection

• a) Virus rupturing the host cell
• b) Virus remodelling the host cell environment
• c) The production of interferons alpha and beta which will prevent the formation of blood cells
• d) Immunopathology
• e) Inflammation

Question 8.

Which of the following statements is correct

• a) Epithelial cells are incapable of detecting pathogens
• b) The adaptive immune system can only respond to an infection if it has encountered it before
• c) Macrophagous and dendritic cells are both phagocytes
• d) Only cells with PRR can detect PAMPs and DAMPs and act as professional antigen presenting cells

Question 9.

True or false:

• The complement system is only capable of attacking gram negative cells

Question 10.

Interleukin 1 and 6 are cytokines produced by dendritic cells, macrophagous, mast cells, lymphocytes, and epithelial cells. Which of the following will not be effected because of this…

• a) Brain to induce a fever
• b) Liver to produce acute phase proteins
• c) An increased production of leukocytes
• d) Decreased permeability of endothelial cells lining the blood vessels

Question 11.

What is the correct order of phagocytosis.

i. Pathogen binds to PRR or phagocytosis reseptor

ii. Formation of phagolysosome

iii. Phagasome formation

iv. ROS, NO and lysosomal enzymes kill pathogen

• a) i, iv, ii, iii
• b) ii, i, iii, iv
• c) i, iii, ii, iv

Question 12.

A hypothetical mutation has resulted in the adaptive immune response being able to respond to pathogens without the need for the innate immune response to activate it. Why would this be problamatic.

• a) This wouldn’t be and it would mean we have a better immune system
• b) This would result in rapid depletion of resources since the body mounts an immune response which is greater then that needed for the pathogen
• c) The adaptive immune response only role is to activate the innate immune response, this is what is normally occurring.
• d) This is not feasible due to the great number of unique immune cells which would not reside normally in the thymus in the numbers required to mount a mutation

Question 13.

In the middle of an outbreak, there will always be a peak in the number of cases, this corresponds to the point at which

• a) the threshold density of susceptible individuals is at it’s mid point
• b) a major reduction in the population reducing the number of people getting the disease
• c) an elimination of the reservoir of the disease
• d) only propagated epidemics peak, common-source epidemics do not have a peak

Question 14.

Select the most true statement:

• a) Diseases are only caused by pathogens
• b) Pathogens can only cause infectious disease
• c) Common source epidemics can usually only occur if it is not human-human transmissible
• d) Removing the source of infection in a propagated epidemic will stop the spread.

Question 15.

Why are hospitals at greater risk of an outbreak of an infectious disease.

• a) People are close together
• b) There are more people with a weakened immune system, resulting in a shift of normal flora from symbiotic to commensal and pathogenic
• c) The hospital environment is continually cleaned with disinfectant
• d) all of the above

Question 16.

Which of the following is not a factor that governs symbiosis between human and pathogen

• a) Virulence
• b) Microbial Load
• c) Host susceptibility
• d) Distress factors

Question 17.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

Glycocalyx is a virulence factor which allows streptococcus mutans which forms dental plaque

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 18.

True or false

Pathogenicity islands cause can aid in causing direct damage to the host cell

Question 19.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

The virus spike protein

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 20.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

The Fimriae of E. Colli to colonize the intestinal tract

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 21.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

Invasions which promote the ingestion of a bacterium.

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 22.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

Coagulase expressed by staph aureus which coagulates blood

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 23.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

1. The outer membrane sheaf which doesn’t contain many self proteins, hiding it’s flagella of treponema pallidum
2. Antigenic variation – change of residue at exposed site
3. Phase variation – change in the type of residue but still performs same function allowing for a heterogenous variation mix
4. Protein mimicry of the host cell

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 24.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

Living as an obligate intracellular organism

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 25.

Which type of virulence factor is this:

Antibody proteases

• a) It improves the pathogens ability to replicate
• b) It allows it to evade the hosts immune system – has an effect on the host defence mechanism
• c) It affects the tropism and spread through a host
• d) It affects the transmissibility between hosts
• e) Directly damages the host cell

Question 26.

What is the correct order for establishing an outbreak

i) Confirm outbreak

ii) Environmental investigation

iii) Patient data

iv) Confirm diagnosis

• a) i, ii, iii, iv
• b) i, ii, iv, iii
• c) iv, i, iii, iv
• d) i, iv, ii, iii

Question 27.

A virus is suspected to be causing a disease. It has been noticed that birds continue to die, 20% of human patients infected also die. It can’t be spread from human to human or horse to horse but can be spread from birds to humans or birds to horses. Which of the following statements it true.

• a) This is a propogated infection
• b) The birds are a dead end host
• c) The virus will not be a problem since humans can’t spread it
• d) The horses and humans are dead end hosts

Question 28.

Which of the following is an ineffective method to control the transmission of the following infectious diseases

• a) Providing water purification systems for areas where vibrio cholera is endemic
• b) Draining swamps where malaria is endemic
• c) Face masks during a measles outbreak
• d) Dust filters during a staphylococci outbreak in a hospital
• e) None of the above

• Return to interactive open-access HSC biology textbook

Answers for Infectious disease Questions.

Infectious disease questions can be challenging, here are the answers.

References

This is a great resource for infectious disease questions.

• School of medicine and health sciences