Download Exam 1 Review Questions

Virology Test #1 Review Questions – Fall, 2014
Be able to:
1. Define an epidemic?
2. Differentiate between common source and host to host epidemics
3. Describe factors that lead to epidemics…at least 2 each from the biological,
social, environmental causes. Be able to draw from specific class examples
(see class 2 summary at the end of this review).
4. What causes host immunity to a virus? Be able to describe the general
immunological events.
5. How does population immunity impact the spread of a virus?
6. Be able to discuss the factors involved in disease outbreak and transmission
from the class summaries of their assigned readings (see summaries below).
Focus particularly on those things that all of the papers have in common, as
well as factors that are unique to each situation.
7. Be able to describe a typical epidemiological investigation – the roles of case
control studies, time place and personal characteristics, and case definitions.
8. What are the four major causes of newly emergent diseases? Be prepared to
discuss how they play roles in emerging diseases.
9. Be able to describe the various types of viral genomes, and how they are used
in the Baltimore system of classification.
10. Be able to describe types of secondary structures in viral genomes.
11. Be able to differentiate between structural and nonstructural proteins, and to
give a few examples from HSV-1
12. Be able to discuss the various symmetries and shapes of viral capsids. Which
one does HSV-1 display?
13. What is an envelope? From where does HSV-1 derive its envelope?
14. Be able to discuss the roles and give examples of both vectors and nonvectors in virus transmission.
15. What makes a cell ‘permissive’? Be able to discuss at least 3 features of a
permissive cell.
16. Describe and differentiate between live-attentuated, inactivated virus, virion
subunit, live recombinant virus, virus-like particles and DNA vaccines.
17. Describe the different methods by which live, attenuated vaccines can be
produced
18. Describe five different mechanisms by which antiviral drugs can interfere
with critical viral processes.
19. Describe how ZMapp is produced, and how it works (if it works…)
20. What is LAT, and what is its role in herpes biology?
21. Be able to describe herpes replication in some detail. You will need to
explain how the virus binds to and enters a cell (and the type of cell it
enters), how it is transported to the nucleus, how it is transcribed and
replicated, how it is assembled and how it is released from the cell.
Terms/molecules with which you should have familiarity include:
a. gC, gD, VP16, vhs, IE proteins, E proteins, L Proteins , rolling circle
replication
Class Summary from Emerging Infectious Diseases: Who, What, Where, When
and Why?
Paper #1 Conflict and Emerging Infectious Diseases
1. Big Picture: Conflict Messes Everything Up.
a. Populations get displaced and can end up in refugee camps with poor
sanitation
b. Can result in poor or lacking epidemic control methods (education,
funds, other resources, medical support, hospitals, health care
workers)
c. Health systems can be destroyed…immunization may not happen
d. Delayed responses to outbreaks. When fleeing bullets, bombs and
mayhem folks don’t tend to notice outbreaks very quickly.
e. Drug resistance can be fostered.
Paper #2 Global Aspects of Emerging and Potential Zoonoses
1. Big Picture: The majority of emerging pathogens are zoonoses. Human
interaction with animal vectors is increasing or changing due to
a. Environmental changes,
b. Human population growth,
c. Food industrialization
d. Transportation of animals and humans
e. Exotic pets
f. xenotransplants.
Paper #3 Global Climate Change and Infectious Diseases
1. Big Picture: As the climate changes, so might our encounters with viral
pathogens. Conditions include:
a. Extreme weather events causing the types of disruption already
described for conflict above
b. Shifting populations of insects and other viral vectors
c. Plant/environmental changes
Paper #4 Urbanisation and infectious diseases in a globalised world
1. Big Picture: As more and more people move into an urban area, the risk of
disease outbreaks increases greatly.
a. Migration moves diseases into new areas where no immunity exists
b. Crowding causes diseases to pass from one person to another more
quickly
c. People share water sources, and can spread disease in that manner
d. Some urban areas have poor people with lack of access to healthcare
e. However, urban areas often have the best available healthcare, too