: Contagion And Infection

Explain two ways you help in preventing the spread of pathogens on a daily basis. (4 Points)

Staphylococcus aureus, a microorganism, is the leading cause of today’s infection in the hospital setting in the US. The optimal growth conditions consist of moist, warm, dark environments. On humans, it is usually found in the nares, groin, and axilla. In 1941, the antibiotic penicillin was discovered and was used to treat S. aureus infections. This

Antibiotics have been E.coli and Staph are two distinct and separate types of bacteria. They each live, thriving in environments wherein they can do substantial damage to their hospitable host! For example, E coli often times lives inside the intestinal track of humans and animals and can disrupt their day to day routines. E coli can be harmful causing gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea and vomiting. Staph, to the contrary, can thrive in a number of places on a living thing, although they typically impede the skin of a living host. Staphs can be aggressive, and in some cases are immune to antibiotics that are typically used to treat the infection. Staphs can be deadly and are usually transferred from actual direct contamination or contact.

Staph infection comes in different types and may cause disease due to direct infection or production of toxins by the bacteria. Boils, impetigo, food poisoning, cellulitis, and toxic shock syndrome are all examples of diseases that can be caused by Staphylococcus [2]. MRSA is a form of bacterial infection that is resistant to numerous antibiotics including methicillin, amoxicillin, penicillin and oxacillin, thus making it challenging to treat the infection [3].

Until recently, infections with the MRSA type of staph occurred mainly in hospitals and other health care settings. Now there are increasing problems with MRSA infections in the community as well. Infections with MRSA may be very serious or even life-threatening.

Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen found mainly on skin, nose and respiratory tract 1 The gram positive facultative anaerobe is round. Transmission occurs through humans or animals, exposure to contaminated surfaces or enterotoxins presence in food 2 . Most susceptible are newborns, young children and the elderly due to reduced immune function 3, 4. Immunocompromised individuals diagnosed ( ie. AIDS, HIV, Crohn’s etc.) assume greater risk of infection 3, 5 . S. aureus causes many diseases including food poisoning, endocarditis, skin/soft tissue (enterotoxin caused scaled skin and abscess) and pleuropulmonary infections (ex. pneumonia), osteomyelitis, septic arthritis and bacteremia 2, 3. In health care settings S. aureus colonies

Staphylococcus Aureus is a gram-positive bacterium that is most commonly responsible for causing staph infections.

The most common source of infection for staph, and MRSA, is the skin. Infection begins at the source of an open wound in the skin, which can include paper cuts or shaving nicks. Skin to skin contact is the most common way to transmit this bacteria from one person to another. Other methods of transmission include but are not limited to: blood, sputum, urine, and stool. One of these transmission sites are typically tested to confirm infection with a positive culture result.

The film, Contagion shows that virus is a lethal threat to man kind’s dominance because viruses replicate themselves very quickly into their host’s cell and generally take over the cellular DNA machinery to make more copies of themselves. They does this during the attachment and penetration, when the virus attaches itself to a host cell and injects its genetic material into it. During uncoating, replication, and assembly, the viral DNA or RNA incorporates itself into the host cell’s genetic material and induces it replicate the viral genome. The viruses don’t directly kill cells but they do redirect the cells resources to their own reproduction and eventually the cell can’t take care of its own functions and dies (Boundless, 2016). Therefore if the virus replicate quickly, they are harder to kill because they are inside the body and antibiotics are ineffective against them (L Anderson, 2015). They are basically bits of genetic material, which are wrapped in a protein envelope. The genes that they have allow them to gain entry into a cell, instruct the cells to replicate the viruses and then find a way out of the cells so that they can infect other cells. Since they are basically just a piece of DNA or RNA, anything that can destroy them may damage the DNA or RNA inside a cell. That means that to kill them, people have to kill some of the body’s won cells, which may or may not be easy. The protein coat of the viruses are antigens. As such, our bodies can produce antibodies that attack the virus once it recognises the protein but unless the virus is weakened and then used to immunize

Where does S.aurues come from? How do we contract it? How do we prevent it? These questions flow through your head wondering when there are seasonal changes this type of bacterium is always the main topic. S.aureus is a gram-positive non-motile cocci. The name staphylo comes from the structure of it which looks like grapes but in clusters. Staphylococcus is one of the most five common causes of infections after an injury or surgery (Dr. Mandal, 2012). Staphylococcus belongs to a family known as Staphylococcaceae it mainly effects humans. S.aureus is contagious so it can be transmitted from person to person or from animals to person. The main areas where S.aureus can be contacted is through minor skin infections such as pimples, impetigo as

The movie Contagion gives a perspective of a worldwide pandemic as it begins and spreads throughout the world while displaying signs of evolution. The movie begins with a woman, Beth, traveling home from a business trip in Hong Kong. Beth becomes sick with what she thinks is the flu. However, she suffers from a seizure and dies suddenly from an unknown cause. Her son along with several other cases around the world suddenly die after having similar symptoms Her husband Mitch discovers that he is completely immune to the disease. Over the next few days the virus gains the attention of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and the governments of the world. With little known about the virus, the CDC and the WHO struggle to find the origin of the virus or how it works. The disease MEV-1 soon becomes a pandemic as the disease transfers rapidly from human to human through fomites. Society collapsed, which led to complete chaos and instability for not only people but also governments around the world . After several months, a vaccine was created and mass produced and distributed to the general public. The CDC was eventually able to trace the pathogen to the origin and patient zero, Beth.

In recent decades, patients and health care works are becoming more exposed serious and life threatening infections like Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aurous. MRSA is a serious infection that is cause by Staphylococcus aurous. According to studies, MRSA is classified in to two categories. Hospital-Acquired MRSA is “developed in the hospital setting and shows an augmented antimicrobial resistance. HA-MRSA usually affects elderly patients who are on life support treatments” (nation institute of health) For example, people who have had surgery or medical implanted devices are easily affected by MRSA. In Addition, MRSA also affects patients who have weak immune system, kidney dialysis or using venous catheters ”

Staph aureus is one of the most common pathogenic species. It is commonly found on the skin, throat, nose and hair of human and animals. Virulence factors for aureus include exotoxins leukocindin, coagulase and protein A and microcapsules (Gordon and Franklin 2008).

MRSA isolates can be shed or exits the body via droplets from the tubes connected to a person colonized or infected. It can be from a tracheostomy tube or bladder catheters or just via breathing, coughing or sneezing. One can also extract it from any body fluid from the site of infection (e.g. pus from pimple or severe skin infection). Transmission can easily occur through direct contact with a person colonized or infected. If a person has an active MRSA infection and presents a sore as a symptom, and a person comes in contact with it, an infection can occur when the hands that came in contact with the said sore touches an opening or cut in the skin. That is how easy transmission can occur, that’s why keeping the skin intact is very essential. Colonization, however, does not need an opening in the skin. One can be colonized through touching of contaminated surfaces or objects, breathing in of droplets expelled from suctioning, normal breathing, coughing or sneezing, or by simply touching the skin of a colonized or infected person (Schoenstadt, 2008).

The genus Staphylococcus is a Gram-positive cocci that is commonly arranged in grapelike clusters. They are universally present in large numbers on the mucous membranes and skin of humans and other warm-blooded animals. They are non spore forming, nonmotile, facultative anaerobes. Many species of staphylococcus can be pathogenic. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common pathogen. It can be recovered from skin lesions, abscesses, and wound infections. It can move from these sites to the bloodstream and urine, where it then has the possibility to cause more serious conditions in various organs.