Assignment
1. Can epidemiology predict the likelihood of an individual being infected after engaging in unprotected sex? Explain your answer.
2. What are three kinds of information that epidemiology can tell us about diseases?
3. What are three criteria for establishing a causal relationship between a factor and a disease? Explain each of these.
4. Describe two non-AIDS-related examples of epidemiological studies that established the cause of a disease.
5. What are the two basic kinds of epidemiological studies?
6. Look at Figure 6-1. The graph on the top half of the figure shows the total number of new AIDS cases in each year, as well as the total number of deaths during that year. Discuss how the incidence rate and death rate of AIDS has changed since 2000.
The death rate has increased, while the incidence rate has decreased.
Both the death rate and the incidence rate have remained the same.
Both the death rate and the incidence rate have increased slightly.
Both the death rate and the incidence rate have decreased slightly.
7. Look at the lower graph in Figure 6-1. This represents the cumulative number of AIDS cases and deaths to date for the given year.
Approximately how many patients had been diagnosed with AIDS in the USA by the year 2010?
What fraction of these patients had died by the end of 1998?
What fraction of these patients had died by the end of 2010?
1,000,000; 1/2; 7/8
1,000,000; 1/3; 2/3
1,200,000; 1/3; 1/2
1,200,000; 1/2; 2/3
8. Explain how the different subgroups and clades of the HIV can make it easier for epidemiologists to track the route of transmission of the virus, while at the same time, complicate the detection of the virus in patients.
9. Look at Figure 6-4. Epidemiology has allowed us to track changes in disease patterns over time. Which risk group in the USA was most impacted by the AIDS epidemic as of 1986, and how had this changed by 2010? Can you explain any of the differences in terms of the historical events or other changes in society between 1986 and 2010?
10. According to the epidemiology data presented in Chapter 6, what sexual practice has been shown to be associated with the highest risk of HIV transmission?
Text Book: AIDS- SCIENCE AND SOCIETY by HUNG Y. FAN, ROSS F. CONNER and LUIS P. VILLARREAL, SEVENTH EDITION.