Jones & Bartlett Learning (JBL) Module 4A Practice Exam

Virulence refers to how capable a pathogen is at causing disease and the severity of the illness it produces. Saying hepatitis B is more virulent than hepatitis C means HBV has a greater ability to cause disease or more severe disease in those who become infected. It does not directly speak to how easy the virus is to spread (that’s transmissibility) or whether the infection becomes chronic or how well it responds to treatment. The option that best reflects virulence is the one describing a greater ability to produce disease. The other ideas describe chronicity, treatment resistance, or contagiousness, which are not measures of virulence.