Down With Disease

Andy Seamans and Dawn Seamans-Shook
Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:00:00 -0700
Lifestyle

This week, The Answer Man looks at infectious diseases.

1. German measles is a highly infectious, short-lived disease that affects older children and young adults. What is its more common name?

2. Rubella is not the same as measles (rubeola), though the two illnesses do share some characteristics, including the red rash. What is the primary difference between the infections?
Updated: Sat Oct 11, 2014

This week, The Answer Man looks at infectious diseases.

1. German measles is a highly infectious, short-lived disease that affects older children and young adults. What is its more common name?

2. Rubella is not the same as measles (rubeola), though the two illnesses do share some characteristics, including the red rash. What is the primary difference between the infections?

3. Because of widespread use of rubella's vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared rubella eliminated in the United States, but the agency cautions parents to make sure their children are vaccinated to prevent its re-emergence. In 1979, the CDC declared another highly infectious disease to be completely eradicated. Name that disease.

4. Name the U.S. doctor who developed a vaccine against polio.

5. Varicella zoster virus is the scientific name for an illness that is characterized by spots that spread from the face and trunk to the rest of the body. What is its more common name?

Answers

1. Rubella.

2. Rubella is caused by a different virus than measles. It is not so infectious as measles and tends not to be so severe as measles.

3. Smallpox. The last case of naturally occurring polio also happened in 1979, but despite a concerted global eradication campaign, poliovirus continues to affect children and adults in Afghanistan, Pakistan and some African countries.

4. Jonas Salk.

5. Chickenpox.