alleryStart learning →Which description fits a carrier of an infectious agent?
AInfectious while having subclinical disease
BImmune after making a full clinical recovery
CExposed to the agent but never actually infected
DSymptomatic and already under active treatment
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: A. Infectious while having subclinical disease
1. The spectrum of disease includes people whose infection never becomes clinically obvious.
2. Some of those people can still pass the agent on.
3. A person who is infectious while the disease stays subclinical is a carrier.
4. Carriers matter because, not knowing they are infected, they take no precautions and spread the agent unwittingly.
5. A symptomatic patient under treatment is an ordinary case rather than a carrier.
_Source: CDC Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, 3rd Edition, section Natural History and Spectrum of Disease_
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