Chromobacterium: Flesh Eating Bacteria

2. What are examples of bacteria and pathogen of concern in water that can cause illness?

I think Melinda has difficulty talking to Mr. Neck in the cafeteria because she believes that he does not care. I think this because on page 9, she says, “Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” Frequently people keep things to themselves because they believe that nobody listens or understands. Mr. Neck has not really made Melinda feel comfortable either. In the auditorium, he strictly told Melinda to sit. Then in social studies, he recognized her to be an alleged troublemaker, which is why he put her in the front row. I think that if Mr. Freeman in the cafeteria instead, Melinda would have no trouble opening up to him since he has an embracing

Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria documentary has had me paranoid. It’s scary to think foreign bacteria can enter your body and shut it down. The most informing information was the NDM-1 wasn’t a bacteria it was a resistance gene that can turn bacteria into superbugs. I do think antibiotics are being over used. I agree with M.D Arjun Srinivasan,” the more you expose a bacteria to an antibiotic, the greater the likelihood that resistance to that antibiotic is going to develop. So the more antibiotics we put into people, we put into the environment, the more opportunities we create for these bacteria to become resistant”.

In the last decade, the number of prescriptions for antibiotics has increases. Even though, antibiotics are helpful, an excess amount of antibiotics can be dangerous. Quite often antibiotics are wrongly prescribed to cure viruses when they are meant to target bacteria. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that is prone to kill microorganisms, or bacteria. By examining the PBS documentary Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria and the article “U.S. government taps GlaxoSmithKline for New Antibiotics” by Ben Hirschler as well as a few other articles can help depict the problem that is of doctors prescribing antibiotics wrongly or excessively, which can led to becoming harmful to the body.

CDC receives reports of over 400 Vibrio illnesses each year. Of those, about 90 per year are due to V. vulnificus. Most V. vulnificus illness occurs during warm-weather months. Individual can contract V. vulnificus found in oysters and other shellfish in warm coastal waters during the summer months. Since it is naturally found in warm marine waters, people with open wounds can be exposed to V. vulnificus through direct contact with seawater, shellfish, and marine wildlife. (CDC,

died. There were only 9 cases in 1993, and 27 cases in 1992, and 25 cases

were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus. That is why they gave the

infection not only hit the humans but animals were also able to contract it. Not many people

Scientists have studied the impact of water borne pathogens over time. Just how dependent human life is on the waterways is one such question which arises. The study involves the effect of such pathogens on human life. This study was narrowed down to the area of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay each weekend is occupied for recreational use. Such activities as swimming, fishing, and body surfing are common place. Normally each year thousands of pounds of seafood are distributed from out of the bay. There is a vast amount of people who come to visit the area each year.

Scientists studying fish in the Chesapeake Bay stated that they have discovered mycobacteria in some of the fish, causing ulcers, emaciation and sometimes death. The article also talks about this kind of mycobacteria having harmful effects on humans. People should be more careful about dealing with fish in the Chesapeake Bay. While the scientists are still studying and learning about this new discovery, they are also looking into and leaning towards prevention. According to the article, “Mycobacteria isolated from Chesapeake Bay fish”, “Studies are currently underway to

The purpose of this study was to identify the unknown bacterium #305. This sample was collected from the urine of a 64 year old hospital patient named “Doris”. Several tests were conducted to determine the morphological and physiological characteristics of the unknown. These tests included but were not limited to: motility, gram staining, salinity tolerance, and fermentation of different substances. After assessing the observed results, the identity of unknown bacterium #305 was suggested to be Citrobacter freundii. The test results, with the exception of the urea test, were very consistent with the expected results.

tainted water. (1) During the Middle Ages in Europe individuals’ corpses who had died from the bubonic

Chromobacterium violaceum is a facultative anaerobic gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria commonly found in soil and stagnant water of tropical and subtropical regions. There are two strains of Chromobacterium violaceum, pigmented and non-pigmented strains. This bacterium is classified as saprobe bacterium and infections are rare. However, it has the ability to cause an infection in mammals including human (Mario, B. et al., 2010), non-human primate (Groves et. al, 1969, Mario, B. et al., 2010). The first human infection was reported in Malaysia in 1927 (M. Sureisen et. al., 2008, Marco et. al., 2011) while the infection in a wild non-human primate was reported in Costa Rica in 2010 (Mario, B. et al., 2010). Black-handed gibbon or also known as Agile gibbon (Hylobates agilis) is a

With the results of the Starch Hydrolysis Test I preceded to the final test which is the Citrate Test. Using aseptic technique, I streaked the organism onto the surface of the Simmons’ citrate slant and let it incubate overnight at 37°C. The Citrate Test determines if the organism is able to

Bacteria has always been one of the most important organisms in the field of molecular genetics, according to scientists. More specifically, Escherichia coli remains one the most famous types of bacteria due to the general harm it causes on hosts. E.coli lives in the intestines of humans and animals, and even though it does not trigger any problems most of the time, certain strains can cause food poisoning. What makes those types of bacteria even more interesting from a research point view, but dangerous when talking about their effect on humans, is the ability to develop antibiotic resistance. Bacteria in general, and E.coli in particular, have small circular DNA molecules called plasmids, which are separate from the bacterial chromosome. Those plasmids carry one or a few genes and usually encode for proteins that serve as a protection from one or more antibiotic. A particular strain of E.coli carries the plasmid pAMP. This particular plasmid confers resistance to ampicillin, a penicillin-like antibiotic.