Final Exam Study Guide: Diseases and Public Health

Antigenic Drift

Minor, gradual mutations in a virus's surface proteins, requiring new vaccines annually (e.g., influenza).

Antigenic Shift

Major, sudden genetic reassortment in viruses like influenza, creating novel strains often responsible for pandemics.

Filterable Virus

A virus small enough to pass through a ceramic filter (e.g., influenza, polio); distinguished from bacteria.

Sanitation Thesis

Idea that modern sanitation delayed early exposure to pathogens like polio, making later infection more severe.

Ableism

Structural discrimination against disabled people; societal devaluation of disabled lives.

Retrovirus

A virus that integrates its genetic material into host DNA (e.g., HIV); uses reverse transcriptase.

Tuberculosis

Bacterial lung disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis; associated with poverty, romanticism, and racialized stigma.

Rinderpest

Highly contagious viral disease in cattle, eradicated in 2011; linked to ecological and colonial disruption.

Malaria

Vector-borne protozoan illness caused by Plasmodium, spread via Anopheles mosquitoes.

Influenza

RNA virus that mutates rapidly via drift and shift; responsible for global pandemics like the 1918 flu.

HIV/AIDS

Retrovirus that attacks the immune system; causes AIDS if untreated; shaped by stigma, activism, and access inequality.

Polio

Viral illness that can cause permanent paralysis; disproportionately affected wealthier, sanitized countries in the 20th century.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Mycobacterium leprae

Leprosy

Plasmodium falciparum / vivax

Malaria

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)

AIDS

Morbillivirus

Rinderpest

Influenza A H1N1

1918 Flu

Poliovirus (RNA virus)

Poliomyelitis

Syphilis

A sexually transmitted infection that causes chancres, rashes, and severe long-term complications like neurological damage if untreated. It was stigmatized and often associated with moral failings in historical contexts.

Smallpox

A highly contagious and deadly disease characterized by fever, pustular rash, and high mortality rates. It devastated Indigenous populations in the Americas and was eradicated globally in 1980 through vaccination efforts.

Cholera

A diarrheal disease causing severe dehydration, muscle spasms, and organ failure. It thrived in unsanitary urban environments during the Industrial Revolution and remains a public health concern in areas with poor water sanitation.

Yellow Fever

A mosquito-borne disease causing fever, jaundice, and hemorrhagic symptoms. It played a significant role in colonial history, particularly in the Caribbean and Americas, where it affected enslaved populations and European colonizers differently.

Measles

A highly contagious disease causing fever, rash, and potential neurological damage.

Malaria

A mosquito-borne disease causing fever, chills, and anemia. It has historically been a major cause of death in tropical regions and was a significant factor in the transatlantic slave trade due to partial immunity among African populations.

Bejel

A non-venereal form of treponemal disease causing skin lesions and bone deformities. It is endemic in arid regions and often confused with syphilis.

Yaws

A tropical disease causing skin ulcers and bone deformities. It is closely related to syphilis but transmitted non-sexually, primarily in warm, humid climates.

Guinea Worm Disease

A painful disease caused by the Guinea worm, which emerges through the skin. It is preventable through improved water sanitation and has been nearly eradicated through public health efforts.

Sleeping Sickness (Trypanosomiasis)

A disease causing fever, neurological damage, and coma if untreated. It is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and has historically impacted colonial ventures and local populations.

Typhoid Fever

A systemic infection causing high fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. It was a major public health issue in overcrowded, unsanitary urban areas during the Industrial Revolution.

Dysentery

An inflammatory disease of the intestines causing severe diarrhea, often with blood. It was a common cause of death in crowded, unsanitary conditions, such as during the Trail of Tears.

Tuberculosis

A chronic disease affecting the lungs, causing coughing, weight loss, and death if untreated. It was a major public health issue in industrialized cities with poor living conditions.

Leprosy (Hansen's Disease)

A chronic disease causing skin lesions, nerve damage, and disfigurement. Historically, leprosy patients were stigmatized and isolated in leprosaria.

Anthrax

A disease causing skin ulcers, respiratory failure, or gastrointestinal issues. It was one of the first diseases linked to a specific microbe by Robert Koch.

Rabies

A fatal disease causing neurological symptoms, including aggression and paralysis. Louis Pasteur developed the first vaccine for rabies in 1885.

Robert Koch

Identified TB bacillus, pioneered germ theory, led unethical experiments in Africa on sleeping sickness.

Elizabeth Kenny

Rejected polio immobilization; pioneered physical therapy for rehabilitation.

Jonas Salk

Created inactivated polio vaccine (IPV); tested on vulnerable populations.

Albert Sabin

Developed oral polio vaccine (OPV); widely used in global immunization campaigns.

Jean Villemin

Demonstrated TB's contagiousness by infecting rabbits.

Charles Laveran

Discovered Plasmodium in human blood, proving malaria's protozoan origin.

Richard Shope

Proved influenza was a virus using swine and filters; pioneered study of filterable viruses.

Jerry Falwell

Claimed AIDS was divine punishment; contributed to AIDS stigma and public health inaction.

Rachel Carson

Critiqued DDT in Silent Spring; helped spark environmental movement.

Smallpox

Eradicated due to global cooperation, stable viral structure, effective vaccine, visible symptoms, and WHO vaccination campaign (1959-1980).

Rinderpest

Livestock disease only with no human reservoir; eradicated in 2011 through vaccine success and global cooperation.

Influenza

Persistent due to antigenic drift and shift, animal reservoirs, short incubation, and public health neglect.

Malaria

Persistent due to Plasmodium's complex life cycle, difficult vector elimination, and socio-economic factors.

HIV/AIDS

Persistent due to long latency, political neglect, stigma, and treatment access disparities.

Tuskegee Study

A study from 1932-1972 that denied treatment to Black men, contributing to distrust of medicine.

Guatemala experiments

Infected individuals without consent, exacerbating distrust in medical practices.

Class & Cholera

Mapped with poverty, lack of clean water, and overcrowding; elites blamed the poor for their disease.

Farr

Proposed the miasma theory and elevation as factors in disease spread.

Snow

Mapped cholera cases to the Broad Street pump, demonstrating the importance of clean water.

AIDS framed as "gay plague"

A societal perception that contributed to stigma and political inaction.

ACT UP

A group that advocated for AIDS awareness and treatment amidst political inaction.

Ableism: Polio & Leprosy

Polio was seen as a 'white disease' and often ignored in poorer communities, while leprosy faced moral judgment and exile.

Antigenic Drift

Gradual mutation of viral surface proteins (especially in influenza), requiring annual vaccine updates.

Antigenic Shift

Sudden genetic reassortment creating new influenza strains with pandemic potential (e.g., bird + human flu in pigs).

Filterable Virus

A virus small enough to pass through a ceramic filter, distinguishing it from bacteria (e.g., polio, influenza).

Sanitation Thesis (Polio)

The idea that improved sanitation delayed early-life exposure to poliovirus, increasing susceptibility to paralytic polio.

Retrovirus

A virus (like HIV) that integrates its RNA into host DNA using reverse transcriptase.

Ableism

Structural discrimination against people with disabilities, both historically and in public health responses.

Vector-Borne Disease

A disease spread by an organism like a mosquito or flea (e.g., malaria, typhus, yellow fever).

Latent Infection

A condition where the pathogen is present but dormant (e.g., TB), often becoming active under weakened immunity.

Medical Model of Disability

Views disability as a defect within the person that needs to be fixed or cured.

Social Model of Disability

Views disability as a social construct shaped by environmental barriers and societal attitudes.

Consumption

TB, misattributed to emotion, intellect (Consumptive Chic).

Leprosy misdiagnosis

Facial disfigurement blamed for all disability.

Early influenza outbreaks

Misunderstood as bacterial (Farr vs. Shope).

Modern tools in pathogen analysis

Molecular clock allows reanalysis of ancient pathogens.

Smallpox and Native Americans

Virgin Soil theory.

Rinderpest

Cattle epidemics → famine → sleeping sickness vectors.

Environmental disruption

Colonialism created breeding grounds.

Disease ecology factors

Tsetse flies, Anopheles mosquitoes, and climate shifts shaped disease ecology.

Quinine and DDT

Enabled or hindered interventions in colonial medicine.

Transportation and pandemics

Steamships, railways = rapid spread (Russian Flu, AIDS).

Urbanization & industrialization

Overcrowding (TB).

Plantation complexes

Yellow fever, malaria, syphilis.

Modern medicine

Vaccines, antibiotics gave false sense of control.

WHO, Rockefeller Foundation, CDC

Emerged from malaria programs.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB)

Morbillivirus

Rinderpest (related to measles and canine distemper)

Poliovirus

Poliomyelitis

Trypanosoma brucei

Sleeping sickness

Influenza A H1N1

1918 pandemic influenza

Bacillus influenzae

Incorrectly identified as cause of influenza (historical misidentification)

SV40

Monkey virus that contaminated early polio vaccines

Prion (BSE agent)

Mad cow disease in cattle; Creutzfeldt-Jakob in humans

Robert Koch

Identified TB bacillus; did colonial experiments with atoxyl on Africans; proved germ theory.

Jean Villemin

Proved TB was contagious by injecting infected material into rabbits.

Richard Shope

Proved influenza was viral using filters and swine; laid groundwork for flu virology.

Elizabeth Kenny

Developed heat/massage therapy for polio patients, opposing immobilization.

Jonas Salk

Created IPV (inactivated polio vaccine); tested on vulnerable populations.

Albert Sabin

Developed OPV (oral polio vaccine), crucial in mass immunization campaigns.

Charles Laveran

Discovered Plasmodium parasite in malaria; observed it under a microscope.

Rachel Carson

Author of Silent Spring, warned about DDT's environmental impact.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Polio survivor; founded Warm Springs rehab and National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

Edward Roberts

Disability rights activist; helped establish Independent Living movement.

Jerry Falwell

Blamed AIDS on homosexuality; opposed public health initiatives.