Eeww! You sure you want to touch that? Germs since and before their discovery have been around man. Who discovered germs and what are germs? How do germs make us sick and are we winning the war on germs? Today we are using too much antibacterial soaps and cleaners. This is making germs mutate to the point they are almost impossible to kill. Let’s set off to enter the amazing world of germs and find the answers to these questions.
According to Dr. Kelly Reynolds, Louis Pasteur a Frenchman, in 1850 began to explore the mysterious world of germs. Dr. Reynolds notes that he was approached by a beer making company because some of their vats of beer were turning sour. Dr. Reynolds says that Pasteur used a microscope to analyze the beer samples and found thousands of microorganisms. Dr. Reynolds noted that his theory was that these microbes (germs) were not a result of the beer going sour but they were the cause. Dr. Reynolds tells us that from his experiments with liquids; Pasteur became convinced that the air contained tiny living organisms unseen by the naked eye. He also found that these germs could be killed by heat. Learningaboutgerms.com finds that his proof of this theory lead to our present day” pasteurized milk”. Pasteur also believed that these microbes could also spread disease among humans. This became known as the “Germ Theory of Disease”. Pasteur continued his work by searching for ways humans could be protected from getting diseases (Dr. Reynolds, Kelly).
There are three different types of germs: virus, bacteria, and fungi. There are thousands of speciesstrainsfamilies of each category of germs.
The Center for Disease Control finds that viruses are the smallest and simplest form of germs. Unlike bacteria, viruses ...
... middle of paper ...
... with germs rather than a lif
Works cited
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, San Francisco Department of Public Health Sfcdp.org/germs. Web
Dr. Reynolds, Kelley. Learningaboutgerms.com.arizona.edu
Irish, Paul. “The world is coming to London and so are the germs. Toronto Star (Canada): Newspaper Source Plus.web.3April 2014
Minnesota Department of Health." Hand Hygiene. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Nordenberg,Tamar.”Miracle Drugs Vs, Super Bugs”.FDA consumer 32.6(1998): 22. Health source-consumer Edition.Web.April 3 2014
Tierno, Phillip .The secret life of germs. New York,
Atria Book, 2001. Print
Zimmerman, Barry E. and Zimmerman, David J. Killer Germs, Microbes and Diseases that threaten humanity. Illinois: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1996.print
There are many reasons why you should know the differences and similarities between viruses, bacteria, and prions. With this knowledge, you can determine how to make yourself feel better if you are sick, or how to prevent getting sick in the first place. This being said, there are many similarities and differences between these three.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Now during his time of teaching and being a part of administration at these different schools, he was also researching and performing studies in his labs. These breakthroughs are what Pasteur tends to be remembered for. One of his most well-known works is his work on the Germ Theory of Fermentation. Around this time many people believed in spontaneous generation. Spontaneous generation states that living organisms would develop from nonliving matter. Pasteur disproved this using boiled broths. He placed them in tubes with longs necks that did not allow particles to get in. No bacteria formed when the tube had the long filter on it. When he used regular tubes, the bacteria would form, thus proving that the origins of bacteria were caused by spores or dust particles and not by the broth itself. This began the theory of biogenesis which then caused spontaneous generations to be forgotten and disregarded. From here, Pasteur 's research showed that beers, milks, and other beverages would be spoiled due to the growth of these micro-organisms. He then invented a process of heating up the liquids in order to kill them and disinfect the liquids. This process is known as Pasteurization. He also hypothesized that micro-organisms caused human and animal diseases and could be prevented by not letting them into the body. Because of this, Joseph Lister inventing antiseptics to use in surgery, which helped to prevent diseases
Watson, Stephanie. Superbugs: the rise of drug-resistant germs. New York, NY: Rosen Pub., 2010. Print.
...s - Fact Sheet." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22 Feb. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.
Over the years humans have tried every possibility to overcome the health problems, spread of epidemics and infections, disease control and have worked towards a healthy society free of disease and health problems. They have succeeded to a great extent. The book “Good germs, bad germs” describes that though the life expectancy is now far more as it was in previous eras. Epidemic problems and infectious diseases are now getting lesser and lesser and humans are being treated successfully. The hygienic conditions have also been improved so as to ensure least growth of microbes, germs, parasites and bacteria. Antibiotics have been invented to address diseases and infections caused by bacteria and viruses. With all these substantial efforts the biologists, physicians and scientists have triggered another epidemic which is even more severe. They have killed those microbes and bacterial species which were human friendly and as a result of either their disruption or mutation, pathogenic bacteria have even become more active and resistant to treatments. This has led to increased ineffectiveness of antibiotic drugs, low immunity and various infections and inflammatory diseases. The chlorinated water for drinking and food processing along with excessive hygienic conditions indicates our fight against these bacteria and germs. Further, these antibiotics are even given to the livestock which becomes our food and as result many of their resistant germs end up in our digestive tract and other organs. Thus, the war against microbes through excessive cleanliness and use of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance among humans, which has become one of the prominent problems of medical science
A remarkable breakthrough in medicine occurred in the late 1800s through the work of Louis Pasteur. Pasteur's experiments showed that bacteria reproduce like other living things and travel from place to place. Using the results of his findings, he developed pasteurization, which is the process of heating liquids to kill bacteria and prevent fermentation. He also produced an anthrax vaccine as well as a way to weaken the rabies virus. After studying Pasteur's work, Joseph Lister developed antisepsis, which is the process of killing disease-causing germs.
Using good hand hygiene is a start to making sure the patient environment is safe. “Handwashing is a fundamental principle and practice in the prevention, control, and reduction of healthcare-acquired infections” (Bjerke, 2004, p. 1). Hand hygiene aids in infection control, being as most hospital acquired infections are due to improper or absence of hand hygiene. Fox, Wavra, Drake, Mulligan, Jones, Bennett, and Bader (2015) suggest that 2.5 million deaths occur from hospital-acquired infections and of those deaths, 90,000 were preventable if the workers in healthcare would have used proper hand hygiene. Piece of mind is a mutual benefit of using hand hygiene in the healthcare setting. A nurse benefits from using hand hygiene because it would reduce the risk of that nurse contaminating other patients when going from patient room to patient room. A patient benefits from using hand hygiene because it reduces the risk of that patient spreading infection from one part of the body to another. Piece of mind is the benefit for knowing that patients and nurses are protected in healthcare facilities by using hand hygiene. Patients and nurses will benefit from using hand hygiene because it is a simple way to aid in keeping the individual healthy. The hands carry many germs and constant adherence to good hand hygiene will decrease the risk of people catching illnesses and contaminating shared surfaces (door handles, tables, and
My interest in the role of microbes and viruses began from UG classes (1993-1999) wherein professors taught us...
Microbes are microscopic life forms, usually too small to be seen by the naked eye. Although many microbes are single-celled, there are also numerous multi-cellular organisms. The human body has 10-100 trillion microbes living on it, making it one giant super-organism. Since the first link between microbes and diseases was made, people have been advised to wash their hands. Scientists, however, have recently started to investigate more closely how the microbes that call the human body home affect our health. While some microbes cause disease, others are more beneficial, working with our bodies in many subtle ways.
There are many diseases that fit into each of the four categories, if not one category, maybe two or more.
German microbiologist and physician Dr. Robert Koch (1843-1910) successfully isolated Bacillus anthracis in 1875 by growing the organism in a pure culture and identifying the bacteria’s ability to form endospores, a resistant type of spore that develops in some bacteria cells. Furthermore, Koch produced experimental anthrax by injecting the disease into animals. From his research and experimentation, Koch was able to discern the life cycle of anthrax and develop the Koch postulates, which identified the causative relationship between microorganisms and diseases. The proof outlined in his discoveries in the late 1800s allowed for later scientists to develop a comprehensive Germ Theory, a notion which states that certain microorganisms present in the body can in fact cause diseases. Long before the formal discovery of the disease, anthrax had originated in 1250 BC, where it is thought to have developed in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece. As the disease was in all likelihood much more dangerous in olden times due to the lack of an ability to control the spread of the bacteria, some theories suggest that anthrax contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. It was only in the 1752 and 1769 that the first clinical observations of cutaneous...
When you hear the word bacteria the first thing that might come to mind would be a germ. Although there can be many harmful types of bacteria, it is an essential part of life. Bacterium is all over...
The concept of microbiology emerged in the late 1600s when Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria and other microorganisms using a single lens microscope. The microscope manufactured and used by Leeuwenhoek served as a catalyst for the field of microbiology, exposing a whole world of microorganisms. With the utilization of tools like microscopes and methods like ink staining, scientist have been able to step into a seemingly invisible world and note the contribution of microorganisms to human life. These tools and methods have been essential to the discovery that DNA was the macromolecule charged with the transformational ability of genetic information in bacterial cells
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rep. N.p., 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.