What is medical micro-biology?

Question 1

Normal Flora

Answer 1

Human beings covered with normal flora
Functions:
- aid digestion in the gut, produce essential vitamins
- can cause disease if get into wrong site eg. perforated appendix
-

Question 2

Infection

Answer 2

When organisms invade the body site and multiply (tissue invasion) producing symptoms/disease
Caused by:
Viruses -
- small and unable to replicate independently
- invade host cells, replicate. cell bursts
- eg. influenza, chicken pox, herpes, common cold, HIV/AIDS
Bacteria -
- capable of independent replication
eg. pneumonia, bacterial meningitis, UTI’s, cellulitis
- treat with antibiotics
Fungi -
- eukaryotic, divided into yeast and mould
- eg. thrush, athletes foot, invasive/allergic aspergillosis
- opportunistic

Question 3

How do we classify bacteria?

Answer 3

Gram stain
Gram negative bacteria are purple, gram positive bacteria are pink (peptidoglycan) = cause different diseases/susceptible to different antibodies
Different in shape:
Cocci (round) can be gram + or -, arranged singularly, in bunches or chains
Rods can be fat, thin, long or short, singularly or in chains