You go hiking with some friends in a nearby national park. The weather is cool when you set out but it quickly becomes very warm. Neither you nor your friends are carrying enough water. Eventually you find a stream and because you are so thirsty, you drink from it. About a week later you start to feel unwell. You have vomiting, abdominal cramps, and explosive diarrhea (loud, severe diarrhea). Your stool seems kind of oily and is difficult to flush away. You tell your RN brother about your signs and symptoms, and he tells you he thinks you may have giardiasis, caused by the protozoan Giardia lamblia.
-Your brother goes on to explain the concept of decimal reduction (D-value) time to you. To illustrate his point, he tells you that if the D-value for Giardia was 3 minutes and the starting number of cells was 10⁴, the time it would take to eliminate all of the Giardia cells would be

Question

You go hiking with some friends in a nearby national park. The weather is cool when you set out but it quickly becomes very warm. Neither you nor your friends are carrying enough water. Eventually you find a stream and because you are so thirsty, you drink from it. About a week later you start to feel unwell. You have vomiting, abdominal cramps, and explosive diarrhea (loud, severe diarrhea). Your stool seems kind of oily and is difficult to flush away. You tell your RN brother about your signs and symptoms, and he tells you he thinks you may have giardiasis, caused by the protozoan Giardia lamblia.
-Your brother goes on to explain the concept of decimal reduction (D-value) time to you. To illustrate his point, he tells you that if the D-value for Giardia was 3 minutes and the starting number of cells was 10⁴, the time it would take to eliminate all of the Giardia cells would be

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The D-value is the time required to kill 90% of the organisms. Starting with 10⁴ cells, each D-value period reduces the number by 90%. After 1 D-value (3 minutes), 10³ cells remain; after 2 D-values (6 minutes), 10² cells remain; after 3 D-values (9 minutes), 10¹ cells remain; and after 4 D-values (12 minutes), 10⁰ cells remain, meaning all cells are eliminated. Thus, it takes 12 minutes.

You Go Hiking with Some Friends in a Nearby National