Disease Classifications, Pathologies, and Key Historical Figures

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering nutritional deficiencies, genetic disorders, infectious diseases, and influential historical scientists from the lecture.

Beriberi

A nutritional deficiency caused by a lack of thiamine ($B_1$), linked to polished rice and studied by Christiaan Eijkman.

Goiter

A swelling of the thyroid gland caused by a dietary deficiency in iodine.

Scurvy

A condition caused by Vitamin C deficiency leading to poor collagen synthesis and bleeding gums.

Cystic Fibrosis

A recessive genetic condition caused by a mutation in the CFTR gene that produces thick mucus; identified by Francis Collins.

Factor V Leiden / Thrombophilia

A genetic mutation causing hypercoagulability and an elevated risk of blood clots.

Christmas Disease (Hemophilia B)

An X-linked bleeding disorder caused by a deficiency in clotting Factor IX.

Huntington's Disease

A fatal dominant neurodegenerative disorder resulting from an expanded CAG repeat sequence.

Alzheimer's Disease

A form of dementia characterized pathologically by amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.

Parkinson's Disease

A movement disorder involving the progressive loss of dopamine-producing neurons.

Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS)

A classic medical eponym for progressive motor neuron breakdown leading to muscle atrophy.

"Breaking" Tulips

A viral infection causing striking color variegation in flower petals, historically tied to Dutch tulip mania.

Dutch Elm Disease

A fungal vascular wilt of elm trees spread by bark beetles; investigated by Johanna Westerdijk.

Huanglongbing (Citrus Greening)

A devastating bacterial disease of citrus crops transmitted via insect vectors.

Drapetomania

A 19th-century pseudo-scientific psychiatric diagnosis applied to enslaved individuals attempting escape, illustrating normativist misuse of disease categories for social control.

Affluenza

A cultural term used to describe wealth-related malaise; its formal medical status remains debated.

Obesity

A condition measured by BMI that serves as a central battleground between Naturalist (metabolic dysfunction) and Normativist (social judgment) definitions.

Wegener's Granulomatosis

An autoimmune vascular disease renamed Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (GPA) to remove its Nazi-associated eponym.

Legionnaires' Disease

A severe bacterial pneumonia caused by Legionella and spread through cooling towers.

Malaria

A disease caused by Plasmodium parasites and spread by Anopheles mosquitoes; treated with artemisinin (discovered by Tu Youyou) and prevented with DDT and bed nets.

Lyme Disease

A bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and spread by Ixodes ticks, typically presenting with an erythema migrans ("bullseye") rash.

Carrion’s Disease

A bacterial infection caused by Bartonella and transmitted by sandflies in the Andes.

Covid-19 & SARS

Coronavirus respiratory illnesses characterized by droplet and aerosol transmission, an epicenter at a Wuhan market, and diagnosis via PCR or antigen testing.

Ebola Virus Disease

A zoonotic filoviral infection causing severe hemorrhagic fever and associated with a high Case Fatality Rate.

Rabies

A neurotropic viral infection transmitted through animal bites that is nearly $100\%$ fatal without timely post-exposure prophylaxis.

H1N1/09 Influenza

The $2009$ pandemic "Swine Flu" strain arising from viral gene reassortment.

Measles

A highly contagious viral infection whose $1781$ outbreak in the Faroe Islands demonstrated immunological naivety and the dynamics of herd immunity.

AIDS

A chronic viral syndrome caused by HIV destroying CD4+ T-cells, which leaves the host vulnerable to opportunistic infections.

Syphilis

A multi-stage sexually transmitted bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum.

Typhoid Fever

A systemic bacterial illness caused by Salmonella Typhi and spread through the oral-fecal route.

Tetanus

A neurotoxic bacterial infection caused by Clostridium tetani that produces severe muscle spasms ("lockjaw").

Toxoplasmosis

A parasitic infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii, linked to feline hosts and exposure to contaminated soil or undercooked meat.

Clostridium difficile

An opportunistic bacterial overgrowth in the gut following antibiotic therapy; effectively treated via Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT).

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

The "Father of Microbiology" who built high-powered single-lens microscopes and was the first to observe single-celled organisms, which he termed "animalcules."

Johanna Westerdijk

A pioneering Dutch mycologist and plant pathologist who was the first female professor in the Netherlands and led research on Dutch Elm Disease.

Francis Collins

The geneticist who led the Human Genome Project and discovered the gene mutation responsible for cystic fibrosis.

Christiaan Eijkman

A Dutch physician who demonstrated that diseases could arise from dietary deficiencies rather than microbes alone, linking beriberi to a thiamine (Vitamin $B_1$) deficiency from polished rice.

Rachel Carson

A marine biologist and author of the $1962$ book Silent Spring, which detailed the environmental and health dangers of synthetic pesticides such as DDT.

Tu Youyou

A Chinese pharmaceutical chemist who referenced traditional Chinese medicine texts to discover artemisinin, a crucial treatment for drug-resistant malaria.