§-Quick questions
NSWBiologyModule 7: Infectious Disease
Quick questions on Modes of disease transmission: HSC Biology Module 7
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What are plant pathogens?Show answer
The same modes apply in plants, with some plant-specific routes such as transmission via grafting and by aphid vectors (e.g. tobacco mosaic virus).
What are routes?Show answer
Touch (skin, mucous membranes), sexual contact, mother-to-child during birth or breastfeeding, droplet spread over short distances (less than 1 metre).
What are examples?Show answer
HIV (sexual contact, blood-to-blood), glandular fever caused by Epstein-Barr virus (saliva), and tinea (skin-to-skin or shared towels).
What is mechanism?Show answer
Coughing, sneezing or talking produces aerosolised droplets. Smaller droplets (less than 5 micrometres) can remain suspended for hours and travel many metres.
What are generic descriptions?Show answer
"It spreads through the air" is not enough. Specify droplets, aerosols, or contaminated dust, and give the typical distance and duration.
What is always name the example?Show answer
A mode without a named disease and pathogen (e.g. "airborne - tuberculosis - Mycobacterium tuberculosis") rarely reaches full marks. Memorise one solid example per mode.
What is tie every control back to its route?Show answer
State that the strategy breaks the chain at the transmission step (e.g. "bed nets remove the vector"), and ideally note why the same control would fail for a different mode.
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