Microbial Mechanisms of Pathogenicity (Microbiology)

Recall cards on how pathogens cause disease. Characteristics of infectious disease: signs versus symptoms, normal vital-sign baselines, syndromes, the vocabulary of disease (communicable, contagious, iatrogenic, nosocomial, zoonotic, acute, chronic, latent), and the five periods of disease. How pathogens cause disease: Koch's postulates and their limitations, the molecular Koch's postulates, pathogenicity and virulence, ID50 and LD50, primary versus opportunistic pathogens, the stages of pathogenesis, portals of entry and exit, adhesion, invasion, and the types of infection. Virulence factors of bacterial and viral pathogens: adhesins, exoenzymes, endotoxin versus exotoxins, A-B and membrane-disrupting toxins, superantigens, capsules, and antigenic variation. And virulence factors of eukaryotic pathogens: fungal adhesins and mycotoxins, and protozoan and helminthic evasion strategies.