Agents of disease Flashcards
Infectious Disease
Invasion of body by microbes (not always contagious)
Contagious Disease
Spread between individuals (always infectious)
Process of how pathogens cause disease
Portals of entry -> Evasion of defenses -> Damage to Host cells -> Portals of Exit
Virulence factors
Ability to infect and cause disease (enzymes and toxins)
Bacteria external morphology (shapes- 3)
Cocci: round, berry-like shape
Bacilli: rod, long, branch
Coccobacillus: oval, very short bacilli
Bacteria external morphology (groups- 4)
Pairs, chains, tetrads, clusters
Bacteria cell wall (types- 2)
Gram + and Gram -
Gram +
- Allows filtration and protection
- Thick wall with several layers
- Techoic acids running parallel to peptidoglycan which anchors plasma membrane
- Protection from desiccation (drying out)
Gram -
- Thin, single layer w/outer membrane
- Vulnerable to desiccation
- Contains LPss, toxic to animals
Steps on how to perform a gram stain
- Fix bacterial sample to microscope slide using heat or methanol
- Crystal violet stain added (everything purple)
- Iodine solution added
- Decolonization by adding ethanol (extracts purple from thin cell walls of gram -)
- Gram - = colourless, Gram += purple
- Add fushin, makes gram- = pink
Strict aerobes
Needs oxygen, aerobic respiration
Strict anaerobes
Oxygen will kill them, fermentation, anaerobic respiration
Facultative anaerobes
Prefer to use oxygen, can use fermentation, facultative respiration
Microaerophilic
Needs oxygen but too high will be fatal.
Viruses key properties
- Dependent on host to synthesize new proteins
- Reproduce easily
- Contains nucleocapsid and envelope to help with cell entry and antigenic determinants
- Less control sequences for higher change of mutations