The microbe Naegleria fowleri, commonly called the brain-eating-amoeba, was first identified from a fatal case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in Australia in 1961. In 1965, three further cases of fatal PAM were found, from which clinical and laboratory investigations pointed to a relation with acute bacterial meningitis among the cases of an unknown etiology. According to Fowler & Carter (1965), when post-death examinations of the bodies were performed researchers found that “microscopically the meningeal exudate consisted of about equal proportions of neutrophil leukocytes and chronic inflammatory cells, amongst which small, often degenerate amoebae were sparsely distributed” (p.740). The species of the organism that caused the amoeboflagellate related disease was later named Naegleria fowleri after one of the primary authors of the report, M. Fowler. Butt reports that the first case of PAM in the United States occurred in Florida in 1962 and a further retrospective study reported by dos Santos Netos suggested that additional identified cases of PAM in Virginia may have dated as far back as 1937 (as cited in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013, Pathogen). As research on the microbe ensues, more cases of PAM are beginning to surface and the search for a cure to the fatal infection is imperative.
The life cycle of Naegleria fowleri includes three different stages: amoeboid trophozoites, flagellates, and cysts; due to the transitory nature of the microbe and the specific forms that it can take, it is frequently referred to as an amoeboflagellate. Despite its abilities to take on various forms, the amoeboid trophozoite is the only infective stage of the microbe and it requires favorable environmental ...
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...e, J., & Pernin, P. (1998). Genetic variation in the free-living amoeba
Naegleria fowleri. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 64(8), 2977-2981. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC106802/pdf/am002977.pdf Trabelsi, H., Dendana, F., Sellami, A., Sellami, H., Cheikhrouhou, F., Neji, S., … Ayadi, A. (2012). Pathogenic free-living amoebae: Epidemiology and clinical review. Pathologie Biologie, 60(6), 399-405.
Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.baylor.edu/science/article/pii/S0369811412000211 Visvesvara, G. S., Moura, H., & Schuster, F. L. (2007). Pathogenic and opportunistic free-living amoebae: Acanthamoeba spp., Balamuthia mandarillaris, Naegleria fowleri, and
Sappinia diploidea. FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology, 50(1), 1-26.
Retrieved from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1574-695X.2007.00232.x/pdf
Gardnerella vaginalis started a controversy due to different interpretations of its clinical significance, taxonomic position, and Gram stain reaction. The organism was first named Haemophilus vaginalis. However, it lacked some of the characteristics the Haemophilus species required. It was then referred to as Corynebacterium vaginale. It was later changed to Gardnerella vaginalis when a new genus was necessary (Catlin, 1992). This paper will focus on the characteristics of G. vaginalis and how it is identified.
Eastfield College Microbiology Laboratory Manual, 1st edition, Oliver, T. D. (Book Must Be Purchased New from Eastfield Bookstore and Cannot Be Sold Back to Bookstore at the End of the Semester), Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2013, Dubuque, IA. ISBN 9781465223784.
Kopp, Elizabeth, and Medzhitov, Ruslan. “A Plague on Host Defense.” The Journal of Experimental Medicine. .
Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled, protozoan pathogen found in fresh bodies of water and soil around the world (Skurie; Byrd 8). It thrives in the layer of sediment at the bottom of lakes and ponds. (Skurie). When living in soil, the N. fowleri, along with other protozoa microbes, clings to plant roots searching for bacteria (Byrd 261). This pathogen is a free-living pathogen classified as an amphizoic amoeba therefore it survives in a free state throughout soil and fresh water while having the ability to be a pathogen (Marciano-Cabral, “Immune”). It primarily seeks bacteria due to an inability to create food (Byrd 27); however, N. fowleri will attack a host if given the opportunity. In addition, it has been proven pathogens of the brain are often able to control the actions of their host to better suit the pathogen’s needs. An example may be to cause the host to have a high body temperature, wanting to stay warmer, or sleeping more often (Byrd 225). This microbe is typically found in the form of trophozoite, cyst, o...
Disease and parasitism play a pervasive role in all life. Many of these diseases start with microparasites, which are characterized by their ability to reproduce directly within an individual host. They are also characterized by their small size, short duration of infection, and the production of an immune response in infected and recovered individuals. Microparasites which damage hosts in the course of their association are recognized as pathogens. The level of the interaction and the extent of the resultant damage depends on both the virulence of the pathogen, as well as the host defenses. If the pathogen can overcome the host defenses, the host will be damaged and may not survive. If on the other hand the host defenses overcome the pathogen, the microparasite may fail to establish itself within the host and die.
Being a gram-negative bacterium, L. pneumophila has lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that act as endotoxin within a human host. The presence of a flagella is thought to mediate adherence to human lung cells, thereby causing infection, since flagella-less strains do not cause disease. Once attached to human cells, the organism is engulfed by a macrophage where is utilizes the internal environment to multiply.
After the eighteen tests were done, the microorganism I identified and the subject of this report is Enterobacter aerogenes; this organism was obtained at random by picking an unlabeled tube with the microorganism in it. A website articulates “E. aerogenes is a gram-negative, oxidase negative, catalase positive, citrate positive, indole negative, rod-shaped bacterium” ("Enterobacter Aerogenes — Details", 2009). "Enterobacter Aerogenes." is a bacterium that causes diseases in humans by accidental bacteria transfer in a hospital setting ("Enterobacter Aerogenes", 2011). This pathogen is not usually found in a human with a healthy immune system, thoughtless transfer of bacteria in a hospital causes most of the infections from E. aerogenes and usually it is drug-resistant so it cannot be cured with drugs (Rakusin, n.d.).
Vampirococcus get their nutrients from a phototrophic purple sulfur bacteria called Chromatium. They also, are an opportunistic epibiont, which means that they attack extracellularly while other predator bacteria eat their prey from the inside. It attacks its prey when there are harsh environmental conditions for its prey. therefore, Vampirococcus is existing in higher numbers at the lower levels of the Chromatium layer in water where conditions are worse for the growth of Chromatium. Once Vampirococcus encounters a prey cell, an attachment structure forms to bind Vampirococcus to its prey. As it begins eating a break in the outer membrane of Vampirococcus appears and plaque develops around the attachment site. Vampirococcus then begins to degrade the cytoplasm of its prey. Vampirococcus begins to multiply, forming multicellular arrangements, while it degrades the victim’s cytoplasm. When Vampirococcus is finished feeding, all that remains of the victim is the cell wall, cell membrane and some intracytoplasmic
The bacteria in question had a white transparent colony. It was found to be a gram negative rod with a positive motility test. The API 20E result was read as either negative or positive depending on the color they produced in the individual tube.
Murray, Patrick R., Ken S. Rosenthal and Michael A. Pfaller. Medical Microbiology, 6th Edition. Philadelphia: Mosby Elsevier, 2009.
In the documentary, Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria, reporter David Hoffman investigates this new untreatable infection along two individuals and a bacterial virus within a hospital. The first individual Hoffman investigates is Addie Rerecich of Arizona, she was treated for a staph infection with antibiotics, but other complications arise. Addie had a lung transplant, she was given several different antibiotics, but her body became pan-bacteria, non-resistance to the bacteria. Addie’s life was on the edge, she had to be on life support, and finally she received new lungs. The transplant helped Addie but it would take years before could go back to normal before the infection. The second individual is David Ricci; he had his leg amputated in India after a train accident. The antibiotic treatment he received became toxic to his body increasing problems. While in India, he underwent surgery almost every day because of infections he was developing. Back in Seattle, doctors found the NDM-1 resistance gene in his body; NDM-1 gene is resistance to almost all antib...
Meliodosis, also called Whitmore’s disease, was first discovered in 1912. This infectious disease is an endemic in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, and it has a high mortality rate (Cheng and Currie, 2005). The mortality rate of meliodosis in Thailand is approximately 40% and 15% in Australia (Limmathurotsakul and Peacock, 2011). Meliodosis is caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, a gram-negative saprophytic bacterium capable of living in hostile conditions such as lack of nutrients, both acidic and alkali environments, and a wide range of temperatures. In Thailand, B. pseudomallei is responsible for 20% of community-acquired septicemia (Cheng and Currie, 2005). Current treatment options are expensive and extensive (CDC, 2012). Without
Salyers, Abigail A. and Dixie D. Whitt 1994. Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach ASM Press: Washington
Amoebae can typically be found in fresh water like pounds, rivers, wet soil and around decaying vegetation. Some others exist in the human and the animal systems that include species that cause serious disease, for example, amoeba called the amoeba naegleria, as known as brain eating amoeba that live in warm water. They can infect you and slowly destroy your brain tissue and the result almost always will be the death, however, the majority of amoebae are harmless to humans.
The most commonly recognized food borne infections are those caused by the bacteria Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli 0157:H7, and by a group of viruses called Calicivirus, also know as the Norwalk viruses. “Thousands of types of bacteria are naturally present in our environment, but not all bacteria cause disease in humans.” (Schmutz 1)