Bacteriology and Infection

control course for 1st year

Nursing students

Prepared by
Dr/Sally Abdel-Basset
 The 4th lecture

Medical part
 Host parasite relationships
The interaction between host and parasite include the
followings:
1. The organisms's ability to breach host barriers and to evade
destruction by innate local and tissue host defenses.
2. The organisms's biochemical tactics to replicate, to spread,
to establish infection, and to cause disease.
3. The microbes ability to transmit to a new susceptible host.
4. The body's innate and adaptive immunologic ability to
control and eliminate the invading parasite.
 What is a pathogen?

 In medicine, we define a pathogen as any microorganism

capable of causing disease.

 Most human microbes are commensal.

 Some commensal species may be opportunistic pathogen.

 Symptoms of disease can reflect part of the microbes strategy

for survival within the host. For example, coughing promotes
the transmission of the tubercle bacillus and influenza virus.
 Virulence factors: toxins

 Microbial virulence factors that permit the establishment of

the pathogen in the host and permit them to overcome host
defenses.

 No pathogen possesses all of the classes of virulence factors,

nor are all virulence factors essential for a pathogen to reach
its goal of sufficient multiplication to establish itself in host
or to transmitted to a new susceptible host.
 Exotoxins

 A number of microorganisms synthesize

protein molecules that are toxic to their
hosts and are secreted into their
environment or are found associated with
the microbial surface.
Bacterial exotoxins, synthesized by Gram-
positive or Gram-negative bacteria
 Endotoxin

 In many infections caused by Gram-negative

organisms, the endotoxin of the outer membrane
is a significant component of the disease process.

 Endotoxin is a lipopolysaccharide and that the

lipid portion (lipid A) is the toxic portion.
 Enterobacteriaceae

 Are a large and diverse family of Gram-negative

rods, members of which are both free-living and
part of the indigenous flora of humans and animals.

 Grow rapidly under aerobic or anaerobic conditions.

 They are the most common cause of urinary tract

infection.
 Morphology and structure
• Are among the largest bacteria, measuring 2 to 4 mm in length
and 0.4 to 0.6 mm in width, with parallel sides and rounded ends.
 Growth and metabolism
• Grow on simple media, only a single carbon energy source.
Growth is rapid under both areobic and anaerobic conditions. All
Enterobacteriaceae ferment glucose, reduce nitrates to nitrites,
and are oxidase negative.
Toxins
• In addition to LPS endotoxin common to all Gram-negative
bacteria, some Enterobacteriaceae produe protein exotoxins,
which act on host cells by damaging membranes, inhibiting
protein synthesis, or altering metabolic pathways.
 Epidemiology
 Most Eterobacteriaceae are colonizers of the lower
gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals.
 E.coli is the most common species of Enterobacteriaceae found
among the indigenous flora.
Diagnosis
 Culture is the primary method of diagnosis, such as MacConkey
agar are commonly used in primary isolation.
 Molecular and immunodiagnosis techniques are still too
expensive for use in clinical laboratories.
Treatment
 They are resistant to high concentrations of penicillin G,
erythromycin, but may susceptible to the broader-spectrum
beta-lactams, aminoglycosides, tetracycline, chloramphenicol
antibiotics.
Thank you for
listening and
attention