Bacterial Diseases of Humans

Bacterial Diseases of  Humans

Gram+ Cocci:

Staphylococci, including Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS):

The main pathogenic species is Staphylococcus aureus (aure = gold, golden), which causes most hospital-acquired infections.

These two incidents occurred in different hospitals in different cities.
Also, keeping your skin too “clean” can wash away the natural “antibiotics” in skin oils, actually making you more susceptible to bacterial infections.

Streptococci:

Not all streptococci are bad: many are beneficial. 

Streptococcus thermophilus (thermo = heat; philia = brotherly love) is one of the bacteria that help turn milk into yogurt. Streptococcus pyogenes causes strep throat (pyo = pus, inflammation; gen = bear, produce).

Streptococcus pneumoniae:

This is a diplococcus (pneumo = lungs) which infects the lungs, causing pneumonia, and is spread by coughing. 

Penicillin is effective for most of these, except where overuse has caused resistant strains. This is especially a problem with S. aureus in hospitals.

Gram– Cocci:

Gonorrhea:

(gono = seed, generation, offspring; rrhea = flow, current) This disease is a sexually-transmitted disease (STD), and is caused by a bacterium of this type. One symptom is a pussy discharge from the genital area.

Meningitis:

(meninges, meninx = a membrane [around the brain]; -itis = inflammation) This is an infection of the membranes covering the brain and/or spinal cord, and is life-threatening because of proximity of these membranes to the brain/spine.

Various Bacilli:

Escherichia coli:

This is a normal part of our intestinal flora, and is non-pathogenic if living in its normal environment in someone’s large intestine.

However, if it gets elsewhere in the body, like the upper GI tract, it can make a person sick.

This usually happens by the “fecal-oral route,” in other words, when someone drinks water or eats food washed in water containing untreated sewage.

Restaurant iced tea is a notorious source ofcoliform bacteria.

Typically the restaurants with the cleanest tea have taken the following steps:

·        tea is stored in a stainless steel-lined container

·        tea is quickly chilled after brewing and held at a cool temperature

·        tea is made in smaller, more frequent batches

·        the container used to store the tea is THOROUGHLY scrubbed clean and sterilized before EACH new batch of tea is added

·        new tea is NEVER added to or mixed with “old” tea

·        the urn is thoroughly sterilized at the end of each work day and left clean and dry overnight

·        tea is not saved overnight for use the next day

·        tea is not allowed to sit in the urns for more than a few hours before it is considered to be “expired”

Cholera:

Epidemics of this disease can be prevented by proper sewage handling.

Cincinnati, as well as a number of other places, experienced a cholera epidemic in the 1800s.

Consider that back then people didn’t know what we now know about bacteria, nor did most people have indoor plumbing.

Bubonic Plague:

(bubo = groin, swollen gland) This is also known as Black Death, and is infamous for wiping out about a third of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages.

Yersinia pestis, the bacterium which causes this disease, is found in wild rodents: rats, mice, squirrels, prairie dogs, and is transmitted by the bite of a flea from an infected animal or from another person by inhaling droplets from coughing.

The incubation time is usually 2 to 5 days with abrupt onset.

Symptoms include chills, fever, rapid pulse, and low blood pressure. The bacteria invade and multiply in lymph nodes, especially in the groin area.

Enlarged lymph nodes, called buboes (bubo = groin, swollen gland) appear with or just after the fever, and the groin lymph nodes are most commonly affected (but others can also be infected).

Another form of plague involves infection of the lungs instead. One main symptom of this form is coughing, with the sputum thus produced rapidly going from mucus to bloody. Most untreated patients with this form die within 48 hr of onset.

Other Bacteria:

Clostridium sp.:

Two common pathogens in this genus cause botulism and tetanus (the disease). Botulism (botulus = sausage) is a type of food poisoning, and is often found in undercooked meats.

The bacteria secrete toxins which are made of proteins which are resistant to digestion by our GI tract, so are absorbed through the intestinal wall, and are toxic to humans.

Under adverse conditions, botulism bacteria (and other bacteria) can form spores, a dormant stage that is resistant to dry heat (roasting, broiling), but killed by moist heat (steaming, boiling, etc.).

Also, typically microwaving does not provide enough heat for a long enough time to kill these bacteria.