How to Ruin Christmas Trivia Quiz

Answer: Malaria

Plasmodium is a type of parasite, which has to find a host to live in. The Anapholes mosquito has proved to be an ideal host, but the mosquito passes the parasite to humans when it feeds on their blood. Malaria causes a high fever in humans, with severe cases even leading to death.

In addition, the illness can recur. At the time of writing, only one vaccine has been approved and its success rate is quite low. Prevention is still the best way to avoid infection, so keep away from those mosquitoes if you can.

Answer: Whooping cough

Whooping cough is a bacterial infection caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium, and known as pertussis. The illness starts with symptoms similar to a common cold, with some fever, running eyes and nose. After a few days, the characteristic cough begins, with the every day name coming from the noise made as the sufferer struggles for breath between coughing sessions.

The illness can be largely prevented by a vaccine.

Answer: Typhoid fever

As the bacterium's name indicates, typhoid fever is a type of food poisoning contracted by eating contaminated food or drinking unclean water. It is prevalent in countries with poor sanitation and children are at the highest risk. Symptoms include a high fever, with temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius. Prompt treatment with antibiotics will resolve most infections but, left untreated, typhoid fever can cause death in around 20% of sufferers.

Answer: Bird flu

H5N1 is just one of many viruses which can cause serious influenza infections in humans and other animals. This particular strain was dubbed 'bird flu' as it is widespread in bird species, especially chickens. Having begun in Asia, the virus has spread to many other parts of the world, and raised real fears that it could lead to a pandemic.

The virus has been shown to mutate, although scientists continue to develop vaccines to combat the various strains.

Answer: Measles

This virus not only causes measles in humans; it is responsible for distemper in dogs, rinderpest in sheep and can also affect cats and seals. Measles causes a high fever and a rash, and there is a risk that the infection can spread to the brain or cause blindness.

A vaccine was developed in the early 1960s and has been very effective in reducing outbreaks of the disease in developed countries.

Answer: Marburg fever

Of all the diseases in this quiz, Marburg fever, or Marburg virus disease, could be the nastiest. It is caused by either of two viruses in the Filovirus family, Marburg virus or Ravn virus. Both cause haemorrhagic fever, with symptoms the same as the equally unpleasant Ebola fever.

Despite the internal haemorrhaging, death is caused by multiple organ failure rather than blood loss. It is found in parts of Equatorial Africa with bats being suspected of being the source of infection. At the time of writing, the first quarter of the twenty-first century, neither a vaccine nor effective treatment, other than palliative care, has been developed.

Answer: Yaws

Yaws is a disease found mainly in humid tropical areas. It causes skin lesions which clear up after a few months but, if the disease is not treated, the infection spreads to the bones and joints causing pain and disfigurement. The cure is simple, with a single dose of penicillin or derived medications being sufficient. Many sufferers, though, live far from medical facilities meaning that they never receive the treatment needed.

The bacterium which causes yaws is closely related to the one which leads to syphilis, but yaws is not a sexually transmitted disease.

Answer: Bubonic plague

Bubonic is just one of three types of plague transmitted by this bacterium, with the others being septicaemic plague and pneumonic plague. Bubonic is the best known of these, as it was responsible for wiping out large numbers of people in Europe during various pandemics. The 'Black Death' pandemic in the fourteenth century is well known, with the bacteria being spread by infected fleas brought to ports by rats.

Antibiotics are effective, but need to be given early. The disease is still around, with parts of Africa and South America having outbreaks. People are still dying from this disease, which many of us probably believed to be consigned to history.

Answer: Typhus

Typhus, or typhus fever, is spread by mites, lice and fleas which are infected with the bacteria. Rickettsia prowazekii is the bacterium which causes the most serious form of the disease, epidemic typhus, which is spread by lice found on the human body.

It spreads quickly in certain circumstances, such as in war zones where people may have lowered resistance and be crowded together with hygiene being difficult. Treatment is with antibiotics and a vaccine is available. Typhus has been the cause of deaths in prisons and among soldiers as infected lice can easily find new victims in close proximity.

Answer: Smallpox

You'd be unlikely to catch smallpox, as this is one of the very small number of diseases which have been declared eradicated by the World Health Organisation. The last known case occurred in 1977, with smallpox classed as eradicated three years later. Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine, from the milder disease cowpox, in the late eighteenth century. Smallpox has been around since at least Ancient Egyptian times, and caused millions of deaths in its time.