Corynebacteria, Listeria, Baccilus, Other Aerobic and Facultative Gram Pos Rods Flashcards
What gram positive rods are capable of forming spores?
Bacillus
Genus of gram positive, acid labile, Chinese letter appearance, non motile, catalase positive bacteria:
Corynebacterium
What disease is caused by bacteria growing in the upper airway that produces a toxin that can spread systemically via pharyngeal and nasal areas?
Diptheria
How is diptheria spread?
person to person via aerosolized droplets. (carriers can keep organism in resp tract for months)
How does Corynebacterium Diptheriae carry the gene coding for exotoxin?
bacteriophage
What does the diptheriae exotoxin do?
Shuts off protein synthesis
What is used to make the toxoid vaccine for diptheria?
formalin
The most common cause of death in dipheria is:
local damage to mucosa and submucosa results in leathery pseudomembrane which can slought off and cause blockages
Second most common cause of death in diptheria is:
myocarditis
How do you confirm Diptheria infection?
Tinsdale tellurite agar (selective and differential), will produce brown halo colony
What is the treatment for diptheria?
Antitoxin and Erythromycin
What is the difference between the toxin produced by Corynebacterium ulcerans and diptheriae?
Same toxin, less produced in ulcerans
What is the most frequently isolated species of Corynebacterium from hospitalized patients?
Jeikeium (opportunisitic and often antibiotic resistant)
Beta hemolysis plus tumbling motility identifies what organism?
Listeria Monocytogenes
What are the routes of infection for listeria?
Contaminated food, Human carriers, Mother to newborn
Where and how does listeria grow?
Macrophages. Attach by internalin, move within cell via listeriolysin
What are the effects of listeria on a fetus?
spontaneous abortion or bacteremia and meningitis
Where is the listeria culture obtained, and what is the treatment?
CSF, ampicillin
Erysipeloid (associated with fisherment, butchers, and vets) is caused by- and treated with, what?
Erysipelothrix, penicillin or erythromycin
Long , gram positive, catalase negative rods (grow anaerobically, but tolerate air) that are part of the normal flora of the vagina, gut, and mouth:
Lactobacillus
An anaerobic diptheroid that can cause opportunisitc infections after eye trauma and orthopedic surgery:
Proprionibacterium acnes
Spore forming, gram positive, aerobic, catalase positive rods that form dry, wrinkled, or mucoid colonies
Bacillus
Classic Bacillus pathogen
Bacillus anthracis
What bacillus species produces two toxins and what do they cause?
Cereus, entertoxin causing similar symptoms to cholera, pyogenic toxin causing destructive abscesses
Beta hemolytic bacillus that can cause bacteremia:
subtilis
Capsuled non hemolytic bacillus that produces a medusa head colony:
anthracis
Modes of anthrax infection:
eating contaminated meat, breathing spores from wool or hair, skin contact with infected articles
Three types of anthrax disease:
cutaneous lesions, ingestions of spores, pulmonary anthrax
Three anthrax virulence factors:
edema, lethal, capsule
When are antibiotics unsuccessful in an anthrax infection?
when large levels of lethal toxin are produced
Describe cutaneous anthrax
most common, 20% untreated mortality, vesicle leaving necrotic ulcer and black center
Describe GI anthrax
25-60 percent mortality, lesions on tongue or tonsil, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea
Describe Pulmonary anthrax
inhaled spores wait to germinate until taken up by macrophages, leads to difficulty breathing and shock, rapidly fatal (86 percent)
What kind of anthrax are antibiotics affective against?
replicating, not latent
After treatment with penicillin, how can recurrent anthrax occur?
spores that survived
