MB9 Gastrointestinal Infections 1 Flashcards
What are the body’s natural barriers to infection?
- What is Diarrhoea?
- Where is it particularly prevalent?
- How is it diagnosed?
- What types of organisms can cause it?
- Mild & self-limiting to severe with dehydration & death
- A leading cause in childhood death in the developing world
- Microbiologic diagnosis is impossible without laboratory investigations
- Bacteria, Viruses and Parasites
How are these different causes of diarrhoea diagnosed?
- Bacteria
- Viruses
- Parasites
- Culture (Increasingly PCR is replacing this), Toxin Detection
- Electron Microscopy, PCR
- Light Microscopy
(all from faeces)
In general, how are diarrhoeal diseases managed?
Fluid & electrolytes
Control
antibiotics – only for patients with high risk criteria
(Antimotility drugs - best avoided)
What is
- Infection
- Intoxication
- The illness is associated with proliferation of pathogenic microbes in infected host
- The illness is associated with the presence of a preformed toxin in the food
Note: Some bacteria produce toxins during infection – Clostridium difficile (ie not preformed but produced in the gut)
Which Bacteria cause INTOXICATION?
Outline the process.
- Bacillus Aureus
- Staphylococcus Aureus
- Clostridium Perfringens
- Clostridium Botulinum
Bacteria grows in food
Makes toxin
Ingested
=>V&D…. Or worse!
SHORT INCUBATION = 2-12hours
Which bacteria cause INFECTION?
- Salmonella
- Shigella
- Escherichia coli
- Vibrio cholerae
- Campylobacter
- Clostridium difficile
- Listeria monocytogenes
Bacteria get in via mouth
(Hu-Hu faeco-oral /
Zoonotic / via food)
Multiples in gut
=> V&D…. Or worse!
LONGER INCUBATION = DAYS
Which has the LONGER incubation period, infection or intoxication?
Infection (days)
- What family are salmonella from?
- Do they normally inhabit the human gut?
- How many serotypes?
- Give some examples of serotypes
- Enterobacteriaceae (Gram –ve rods family )
- No
- >2000 serotypes based on O and H antigens
- Salmonella Belfast
Salmonella Dublin
Salmonella typhi
Salmonella paratyphi
Salmonella typhimurium
Salmonella enteritidis
What are the two main syndromes caused by salmonella?
What sized-innoculum is needed?
Enterocolitis
- a zoonosis
- about 2,000 named organisms
- Most important S. typhimurium & S. enteritidis
Enteric Fevers
- not a zoonosis - human to human transmission
- Salmonella typhi
Salmonella paratyphi
need a large innoculum- 1000s of bacteria
Salmonella causing Enterocolitis
- How is it transmitted?
- What is the incubation period?
- What are the symptoms of Enterocolitis?
- How long will Enterocolitis last for?
- How is it diagnosed?
- How can it be managed?
- To humans via contaminated food and person to person
- 6hours-2days
- nausea, vomiting, abd. cramps, and non-bloody diarrhoea
- 2-7days
- Culture on selective media or PCR
- Fluid & electrolyte replacement may be needed
- Salmonella (non-typhoid)
Treat invasive or severe infection only (rare) or if immunocompromised Ciprofloxacin or cefotaxime
Salmonella causing Enteric Fever
- What bacteria causes this?
- How is it transmitted?
- What is the incubation period?
- What are the symptoms?
- How long does it last?
- How is it diagnosed?
- How can long term carriers be identified?
- What is the treatment?
- S. typhi and paratyphi
- Human to human
- 10 to 14 days
- Fever with headaches, myalgias, malaise (can be severe sepsis)
- 1 week followed by diarrhoea
- Culture on selective media
- Post infection carriers- long term in some – gall bladder colonisation
- Ciprofloxacin or cefotaxime
Constipation and muscle cramps, seen in returning travellers
Shigella
- What family is shigella from?
- How is transmitted?
- How many species cause bacillary dysentry? Which is the most serious?
- What are most cases caused by?
- Gram –ve rods- enterobacteriacea
- Strictly human pathogen -spread by fecal-oral route => V. infectious (small infective dose)
- 4 Species. S. dysenteriae
- S. sonnei
- What is Bacillary Dysentry?
- Who does it affect?
- What are the symptoms?
- What is the treatment?
- Shigellosis
- Primarily a pediatric disease
- Short IP- diarrhea is watery initially, but later contains mucus & blood & pus- abdominal cramps & fever
- Antibiotics should only be given for severe shigella diarrhoea – susceptibility testing important
- BNF: Antibacterial not indicated for mild cases.
Ciprofloxacin or azithromycin
Alternatives if micro-organism sensitive, amoxicillin or trimethoprim
Escherichia coli
- What family is E.Coli from?
- How many different groups of E.Coli are there?
- What is ETEC?
- What is EPEC?
- What is EHEC? (tests are carried out to distinguish groups)
- Is antibacterial therapy indicated?
- Gram –ve rods - enterobacteraceae (some strains are normal gut flora others cause infections)
- 6 with different pathogenetic mechanisms some invasive, others toxigenic
- enterotoxigenic E.coli (causes traveller’s diarrhoea)
- enteropathogenic E.coli (cause diarrhoea in babies)
- enterohaemorrhagic E.coli Haemolytic uraemic syndrome
- NO