Deck 30: Agents of Bioterror and Forensic Microbiology

Question 1

What classification system for biological weapons was developed in 1999 by academic infectious disease experts, government officials, military intelligence experts, and law enforcement officials?

A) Biosafety levels
B) High, moderate, and low categories
C) A, B, C categories
D) Normal, increased, and high categories

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Yersinia pestis causes all the following, except

A) bubonic plague.
B) septicemic plague.
C) pneumonic plague.
D) meningococcal plague.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What is bioterrorism?

A) The use of bacteria, viruses, fungi, or toxins to harm people, animals, or crops to cause civil unrest
B) The use of synthetic biological substances to kill innocent people
C) The use of biological substances to kill, maim, or injure as many people as possible
D) The use of biohazardous substances to cause chaos

Answer 3

A

Question 4

A microbiologist is looking at a sheep blood agar (SBA) plate from a patient who might have been exposed to a biological agent. The colonies are nonhemolytic, large, have a ground-glass appearance, and look like a Medusa's head. On Gram stain, the colonies are large gram-positive rods that seem to have central spores. What is the most probable organism?

A) Bacillus anthracis
B) Brucella mallei
C) Burkholderia cepacia
D) Yersinia pestis

Question 5

A microbiologist is examining plates of a lymph node biopsy from a seriously ill patient. The SBA plate shows small, nonhemolytic colonies that have a fried egg appearance. On MacConkey agar, these organisms grow as a small, nonlactose fermenter. On Gram stain, this organism exhibits bipolar staining and plump gram-negative rods. What is the most probable identification?

A) Brucella mallei
B) Bacillus anthracis
C) Yersinia pestis
D) Burkholderia cepacia

Question 6

All the following organizations established the Laboratory Response Network (LRN), except

A) United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).
B) CDC.
C) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
D) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Question 7

What is the specimen of choice for cutaneous anthrax?

A) Blood
B) Spinal fluid
C) Vesicular fluid from lesions
D) Sputum

Question 8

One of the first recorded terror attacks occurred in 1984 in a restaurant in The Dalles, Oregon. What organism was used in this attack?

A) Salmonella
B) Escherichia coli
C) Clostridium
D) Staphylococcus

Question 9

What is the specimen of choice for GI and inhalation anthrax?

A) Sputum
B) Vesicular fluid from lesions
C) Spinal fluid
D) Blood

Question 10

Rabbits are a reservoir for which of the following?

A) Francisella tularensis
B) Bacillus anthracis
C) Yersinia pestis
D) Burkholderia cepacia

Question 11

How can biological weapons enter the host?

A) Through the respiratory tract
B) Through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract
C) Through the mucous membranes
D) All of the above

Question 12

What type of plague is the most common and results from the bite of a flea?

A) Bubonic plague
B) Septicemic plague
C) Pneumonic plague
D) Osmotic plague

Question 13

What type of anthrax is most deadly and most likely to be seen in a bioterrorism attack?

A) GI
B) Inhalation
C) Cutaneous
D) Spinal

Question 14

Which of these are designated as sentinel hospitals in the LRN?

A) CDC
B) Reference laboratories
C) State public health laboratories
D) Community hospitals with microbiology laboratories

Question 15

Who will be most likely to suspect a covert bioterrorism attack?

A) Firefighters and the police
B) Microbiologists and physicians
C) The public health department
D) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Homeland Security

Question 16

What is the role of the sentinel laboratory?

A) To rule out or refer suspicious isolates
B) To identify suspicious isolates
C) To act as a reference laboratory for physician office laboratories
D) None of the above

Question 17

What document prohibits the use of biological agents during war?

A) Geneva Protocol
B) Treaty of Versailles
C) Antiproliferation Pact
D) Law of Armed Conflict

Question 18

Organisms that have the following characteristics-aerobic growth, nonhemolytic colonies 2 to 5 $\mu$ m in diameter, catalase positive, nonmotile, large gram-positive bacilli recovered from lesions, blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or lymph nodes-can be presumptively identified as

A) Brucella mallei.
B) Bacillus anthracis.
C) Yersinia pestis.
D) Burkholderia cepacia.

Question 19

What federal regulation establishes the rules of possession, use, and transfer of select agents and toxins?

A) Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002
B) Federal Select Agent Program
C) Animal Health and Inspection Act
D) Infectious Agent Act

Question 20

What organism caused the disease known as the Black Death?

A) Brucella mallei
B) Bacillus anthracis
C) Yersinia pestis
D) Burkholderia cepacia

Question 21

What is characteristic of smallpox?

A) The pustules penetrate deeply into the tissue.
B) Infections also occur on the palms and the soles of the feet.
C) The synchronous progression of the lesions
D) All of the above

Question 22

A microbiologist examines culture plates with large nonpigmented gray colonies at 24 hours that are indole-negative, nonmotile, catalase-positive, and resistant to polymyxin B disks. The Gram stain shows this is a gram-negative coccobacillus. What is the most probable organism?

A) Francisella tularensis
B) Brucella mallei
C) Yersinia pestis
D) Burkholderia cepacia

Question 23

Botulism toxin is

A) a neurotoxin primarily produced by Clostridium botulinum.
B) a mucosal toxin primarily produced by C. botulinum.
C) an enterotoxin primarily produced by C. botulinum.
D) an endotoxin primarily produced by C. botulinum.

Question 24

What organism causes glanders?

A) Francisella tularensis
B) Brucella abortus
C) Yersinia pestis
D) Burkholderia mallei

Question 25

Which of the following describes Francisella tularensis?

A) Tiny, gram-negative coccobacilli that do not grow well on chocolate or MacConkey's and are biochemically inert
B) Tiny, gram-negative coccus that grows well on blood agar
C) Tiny, pleomorphic, poor-staining, gram-negative coccobacilli that do not grow well, if at all on blood agar
D) None of the above

Question 26

What is the most common presentation for tularemia?

A) Pneumonic tularemia
B) Ulceroglandular tularemia
C) Bubonic tularemia
D) Septicemic tularemia

Question 27

Viral hemorrhagic fevers include all the following, except

A) Ebola virus.
B) Crimean-Congo.
C) Lassa fever.
D) Black fever.