[Seetal]

16-year old high school dropout develops urticaria and athralgia. he reports that his urine is dark in color and his sclera are yellow. he has not felt well for the past week or so and has quit smoking because the cigarettes started to taste funny. what is the characteristic of the virus infection:
a. icosahedral, enveloped double stranded DNA
b. icosahedral, naked double stranded DNA
c. icosagedral, naked ss-DNA
d. helical, naked, negative ss-RNA
e. helical, enveloped, negative ss-RNA

 

[just_md]

Hepadna virus

A. Hepatitis B

 

[khanar]

A. Hepatitis B

There's no hepatitis B in the options

 

[khanar]

How on earth a 16 year old child gets a Hepatitis B!

 

[just_md]

Hmm

Asking about virus, which cause hepatitis, according to clinical.

HBV is icosahedral, enveloped partially circular ds DNA (option A),
other A, C, E are icosahedral, naked (A, E) and enveloped (C) +RNA,
HDV - enveloped, ss -RNA, helical (option E).
Options left --> icosahedral, enveloped ds DNA, which is hepadnavirus, which causes Hep B
Could be HDV (option E), but HDV is considered to be a subviral satelite because it can propagate only in the presence of the HBV (from wiki)
Where she found disease, I have no idea. May be "high school dropout". But she has this virus.

Looks like this.

 

[khanar]

Oh yeah, you are absolutely right.
I overlooked the "dropout" thing, she must be a street girl

 

[Seetal]

A (Hep B it is)

lol.. this was nice. i didnt wanna reply just_md too fast coz i wanted to see if the others got the answer. although i do believe just-md has done his share of studying of microbiology. thats where i got this question. this was the one question that got me so MAD!! i mean like how the hell rite. but yes, this is a question in kaplan and it is Hep B. well done just-md!

 

[Seetal]

Oh yeah, you are absolutely right.
I overlooked the "dropout" thing, she must be a street girl

YESSS. the dropout thing has to do with HIM probably being an IV drug abuser. as we all know, HepB has a higher tendency to be spread via needle stick as compared to HIV. and the itching and athralgia are to do with the jaundice caused by hepatitis viruses. Hep B (hepadna virus) is most spread by needle stick compared to hepA(picorna virus), Hep E(calcivirus), Hep C(flavivirus) and HepD(which is only really infective with hepB primary infection). so there
if a question says, this guy just got a tattoo 2-6 weeks ago, feeling ill, jaundiced and athralgia with malaise, N cigarettes taste funny it could also be HepB (so think HepB before HIV because HIV has a honeymoon period of 3months before any prominent symptoms.)