Common Differences Between Viruses and Bacteria Discussion Questions

Note:  You may work alone or with a partner on these questions.  If you work with another student, make sure you both upload the document and state who you worked with clearly on the document, not doing will constitute plagiarism and/or reduction in points.

The Maximum number of students in a group is TWO

Upload answers to the following discussion questions 1-12

For more information and some answers, refer to the chapters on Viruses (Ch.13), Principles of Disease and Epidemiology (Ch.14), Immunology and immune system (Ch. 16, 17, 18) in your textbook and the 

Important:  Use your textbook to get most of the information and answers to the questions.  If you use Google, your answers will not be specific and sometime incomplete.

Grade based on question number formatting, organization of information/data, accuracy, details and following directions.  Please include the resources used in answering these questions at the end.

Answer the following questions

1. What are some basic differences between bacteria and viruses?   b. List the properties that define a virus, are they living or non-living?  Justify your answer.  c.  Why can’t you treat viral infections with antibiotics?
2. Differentiate between the following sets of terms

• Etiology and Pathogenesis
• Infection and disease
• Pathogenicity and virulence

1. What are some common reservoirs of infection?
2. What are zoonoses, give a few examples of these.

5.  What are “notifiable” diseases, give a few examples of these.

6.  Distinguish between communicable, non-communicable and contagious diseases with examples.  Please note, for the communicable, non-communicable and contagious diseases, give examples from the microbial world.

7.  Distinguish between nosocomial infections and opportunist infections and give a few examples of these.  How can they be prevented?

8.   Distinguish between acute, chronic and latent infections with examples.

9.    Watch the following John Snow video  and answer the following questions:  

• a. What is the name of the field that arose out of his observations?

• b.  What is the source of infection for the disease cholera as depicted in the video?  
• c.  what is the etiologic agent for cholera?  Include your answers here. 

10. Differentiate with examples, natural versus artificial immunity and active versus passive immunity.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource

Here is an Immune cells and Vaccine interactive.  You need to enable flash on your computer for the interactives:

History of vaccination

Immunity and vaccines 

Types of vaccines and how to make them, interactive (need to enable flash)

1. Distinguish the various types of vaccines ,attenuated whole agent, subunit, toxoid, rDNA (recombinant DNA)

12.  Differentiate between SARS-CoV-2 and COVIDd-19.  How is COVID-19 testing done?  What is the difference between the antibody test and the PCR test for COVID-19?  Which is more accurate? And Why?