Infectious Diseases Flashcards
7 cards from real Physician Assistant practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Infectious Diseases flashcards as text
A hiker in North Carolina has fever, headache, and a petechial rash that started on the wrists and ankles and spread to the palms and soles. What is the empiric treatment?
Answer: Doxycycline
Suspected Rocky Mountain spotted fever should be treated right away with doxycycline at any age, because delay increases mortality.
A patient from Connecticut has fever, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated transaminases after a tick bite, with morulae seen in neutrophils. What is the most likely diagnosis?
Answer: Human granulocytic anaplasmosis
Anaplasmosis, transmitted by Ixodes ticks, shows morulae in granulocytes along with cytopenias and transaminitis.
A patient with new-onset unilateral facial nerve palsy after a summer tick exposure in Wisconsin is diagnosed with early disseminated Lyme disease. What is the recommended oral therapy?
Answer: Doxycycline for 14-21 days
Lyme facial palsy is treated with oral doxycycline for 14-21 days.
An asplenic patient who recently returned from Nantucket has fever, hemolytic anemia, and intraerythrocytic 'Maltese cross' forms on blood smear. What is the most likely organism?
Answer: Babesia microti
Babesiosis is transmitted by Ixodes ticks in the Northeast, and its tetrad 'Maltese cross' forms help distinguish it from malaria.
A traveler returning from sub-Saharan Africa has fever and confusion, and a smear shows banana-shaped gametocytes with 8% parasitemia. What is the most appropriate treatment in the US?
Answer: IV artesunate
Severe falciparum malaria (altered mentation or parasitemia of 5% or more) needs IV artesunate, which is available in the US.
A previously unvaccinated adult is bitten by a bat. Besides wound care, what is the correct rabies post-exposure prophylaxis?
Answer: Rabies vaccine on days 0, 3, 7, and 14 plus rabies immune globulin on day 0
Unvaccinated patients get HRIG infiltrated at the wound plus a 4-dose vaccine series (5 doses if immunocompromised).
A hunter develops an ulcerated skin lesion with tender regional lymphadenopathy after skinning a rabbit. What is the most likely organism?
Answer: Francisella tularensis
Ulceroglandular tularemia follows contact with infected rabbits and presents with an ulcer and regional lymphadenopathy.
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