A day care center asked the nurse to come because they had ...

[tiffannnnyyyyyy]

A day care center asked the nurse to come because they had several children out as a result of chickenpox. Which of the following statements should the nurse make to the staff?
 
  a. Chickenpox has low infectivity so few children will get sick.
  b. Chickenpox has low pathogenicity so the children won't be sick enough to stay home if the parents really need to go to work.
  c. Chickenpox has low virulence so the children will be back at the day care center in a week or so.
  d. Adults never catch chickenpox, so the staff are safe and may continue working.

Question 2

The daily patrons of a local town restaurant became ill with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Without knowing the cause, which of the following actions should be taken immediately to help avoid future problems?
 
  a. Establish a series of cooking classes for all citizens
  b. Have a citywide campaign to cover your mouth when sneezing
  c. Use bleach to clean the entire restaurant
  d. Strongly emphasize the importance of proper hand washing to staff

[briezy]

Answer to Question 1

ANS: C
Other considerations for understanding the action of agents include their power to invade and infect large numbers of people (infectivity), their ability to produce disease in those infected with the agent (pathogenicity), and their ability to produce serious disease in their hosts (virulence). When the above concepts are applied, the chickenpox virus has high infectivity, high pathogenicity, and very low virulence.

Answer to Question 2

ANS: D
Agents leave the human host through a portal of exit and invade through a portal of entry. Portals of exit include respiratory secretions, vaginal secretions, semen, saliva, lesion exudates, blood, and feces. Portals of entry are associated with the portal of exit and include the respiratory passages, mucous membranes, skin and blood vessels, oral cavity, and the placenta. Because it was food poisoning of some sort, until the cause is known, it can be assumed to probably be a fecal-oral transmission. Thus, the interventions of cooking classes, covering your mouth when sneezing, and using bleach to clean the entire restaurant would be ineffective. Therefore, staff need to again be reminded of the importance of careful hand washing after using the facilities.