Gas Gangrene Research Paper

Some species have been isolated in the stomach, gallbladder, intestine, vagina, and skin of healthy persons. The bacteria produce toxins that dissolve cell membranes, causing death of muscle cells, massive spreading edema, hemolysis of red blood cells, hemolytic anemia, hemoglobinuria, and renal failure. Characteristic of this disorder are the bubbles of hydrogen sulfide gas that form in the muscle. Gas gangrene is a serious and potentially fatal disease. Antibiotics are used to treat the infection and surgical methods are used to remove the infected tissue. Amputation may be required to prevent spreading (Porth & Gaspard,

Clostridium perfringens are bacteria that produce harmful toxins to humans. Clostridium perfringens and its toxins are found everywhere in the environment, including soil, dust and, animals. but human infection is most likely to come from eating food that is contaminated with Clostridium perfringens in it. Food poisoning from Clostridium perfringens is very common, but is typically not too severe, and is often mistaken for the “24-hour flu”.

The bacteria produce a toxin known as cytolethal distending toxin. This toxin is believed to be the cause of disease in humans, but it isn't fully understood. It is also suspected to be a causative agent in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease that causes neuron demyelination, but again its role is not specifically understood.

Antibiotic-associated Clostridium difficile is bacteria that can cause an array of symptoms from mild to moderate diarrhea, to a more severe and life-threatening inflammation of the colon called colitis. This form of C. difficile mainly occurs in people who have been on antibiotics, mainly for an unrelated infection. This bacterium is grouped into two separate classes; active and inactive. In the active class the bacteria cannot survive in our environment for an extended period of time. In the inactive or noninfectious class the bacteria can survive in our environment. The inactive class is also called a spore. C. difficile spores are often found in hospitals, nursing homes, and newborn nurseries. C. difficile spores can be found on; telephones, bedpans, furnishings, floors, in and around bathrooms, linens, stethoscopes, medical equipment, under fingernails, rings and other jewelry, infants' rooms, diaper pails,

This rapidly deadly disease, characterized by these certain factors, enable the bacterium to eventually lead the host into a painful death.

Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium that can be found in soil, feces, and water. There are four major toxins (alpha, beta, epsilon and iota) and five strains of C. perfringens (A-E) that cause a variety of symptoms such as food poisoning, gas gangrene, and severe neurological disease in sheep and other ruminants. The latter will be the primary focus of this research paper.

B. pertussis is a very small Gram-negative aerobic coccobacillus that appears singly or in pairs. Its metabolism is respiratory, never fermentative, and taxonomically, Bordetella is placed among the "Gram-negative Aerobic Rods and Cocci" in Bergey's Manual (Todar, 2008). Bordetella is not assigned to any family. The bacteria are nutritionally concerned and is usually formed in rich media filled with blood. B. pertussis produces multiple antigenic and biologically active products, including pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, agglutinogens, adenylate cyclase, pertactin, and tracheal cytotoxin (C, 2015). These products are responsible for the features of pertussis, and an immune response to one or more would produce immunity after the infection. Although however the immunity following the pertussis infection does not appear to be permanent. Some means of infections would be through airborne droplets, respiratory secretions and droplets. It occurs less frequently by contact with newly contaminated articles of an infected

Gas gangrene happens when tissues do not get enough blood supply and that area dies. The causative agent in gas gangrene is C. perfringens microorganisms. According to Tortora, “they ferment carbohydrates in the tissue and produce gases (carbon dioxide and hydrogen) that swell the tissue (652).” The vector of gas gangrene is the bacteria and toxins that build up that causes the disease. Once the bacteria are present

In the family of Betaproteobacteria is the bacteria Bordetella pertussis; it is a gram -, rod-shaped, non-motile bacterium. The bacterium is encapsulated and does not produce spores. Since Bordetella pertussis is non-motile they only can travel through water droplets usually if they are within five feet of the infected person. Bordetella pertussis cannot live outside of a human host for very long. The incubation period for Bordetella pertussis bacteria is typically four to twenty one days but can range from one to forty-five days. The bacteria are typically inhaled which is how it will enter the host. It then will produce adhesions making it able to stick to the cilia in the lungs and trachea. Bordetella pertussis then releases cytotoxins that damage or paralyze the cilia and cells in the lungs, which produces mucous and then prevents the body from coughing up the mucous.

Clostridium perfringens is a thick cell-walled, spore producing bacterium able to thrive without oxygen and the second most common source of foodborne illness in the United States. A few strains of C. perfringens produce toxins such as Alpha toxin, which is known for causing vasoconstriction— the constriction of blood vessels, causing dramatic blood pressure increase— blood clots, and low cardiac output along with Beta 1 toxin causing acute hemorrhagic cell death in avian, and Beta 2 toxin is known to cause stomach flu among cattle, equine, and swine. Even fewer strains produce the far rarer C, D, and E toxins, all sporting similar symptoms. In humans, symptoms of infection from C. perfringens are vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramping, diarrhea,

Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, anaerobic bacillus bacteria. Clostridium difficile infection is considered one of the healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and the leading cause of healthcare-associated diarrhea (antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis). C. difficile exists in soil, food and colonizes the gastrointestinal tract of several animals and human beings.1 It is estimated that about 5–15% of adults, up to 84.4% of newborns and infants, and nearly 57% of long-term care facilities’ residents are carriers of C. difficile. 2

There are several virulence factors associated with the initial infection, including: filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and the pertussis toxin. Bordetella pertussis colonizes in the host via filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and the pertussis toxin. FHA is a large protein that forms filamentous structures on the cell surface and also binds to galactose residues on the surface of the trachea’s ciliated epithelial cells. The pertussis toxin is a protein that has five subunits: S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5, is also involved in adherence to the tracheal epithelium. Many of these components are also known as adhesions, which bind the bacteria to the host cell. While others utilize different receptors and bind to a glycolipid found specifically on the tracheal epithelium. Bordetella pertussis also produces its own toxins, such as invasive adenylate cyclase, which is a single polypeptide that enters epithelial cells, locally reduces phagocytic activity, and lyses red blood cells, and initiates infection. Lethal toxin, formerly called dermonecrotic toxin, is a protein that causes inflammation where Bordetella pertussis colonizes. Tracheal toxin, a peptidoglycan fragment, destroys ciliated cells, stimulates the release of interleukin-1, and causes fever. Once infected, the individual receives antibiotics, usually erythromycin. In order to have more control of this disease, there needs

According to www.news-medical.net bedsores develop when great amount of pressure is applied on a patch of skin over a short period of time. Blood flow to be congested and festered may occur because of the amount of pressure. The tissues rapidly become starved of nutrients and oxygen without a blood supply. An increase of toxins and by products that the blocked blood supplies is unable to remove; there is a break down, leading to the formation of an ulcer.

Pressure ulcers (PUs) usually develop over a bony prominence as a result of pressure, or pressure in combination with shear stress and/or friction. Additional contributing factors include immobilization and malnourishment. Groups known to have a high risk of developing PUs include bedridden patients, wheelchair-bound individuals, frail elderly persons with no or limited mobility, as well as individuals with diabetes, poor nutrition, and chronic blood-flow diseases. Pressure ulcers represent an enormous burden on our health care system and an enormous problem for health care providers. Pressure ulcers result in both an increased length of hospital stay and increased hospital costs. Once developed, PUs represents an acute health condition that

This paper will explore the research of sarcoidosis and several journal articles that I found to gain research from. In those articles I learned about what sarcoidosis is and how the economy will benefit from sarcoidosis. There are several articles, however, that vary in their definitions and different diagnosis and advances dealing with Sarcoidosis. Often times people mistake eczema or other serious health related issues for sarcoidosis. I chose to research sarcoidosis because my grandfather was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 1999 and ultimately passed away in 2011. Sarcoidosis wasn’t the only health related issue that caused his death. Sarcoidosis was the primary factor as to why he ended up passing away but with him having sarcoidosis for so long it caused him to have other major health related issues as well. After having sarcoidosis for about eight years he developed irregular heart beat, prostate cancer, and bruising on his liver. He battled all of these health conditions until his passing in 2011. With him having irregular heart beat, he was always tired and his sleep patterns were always off. I remember the last five years of my grandfather’s life. He was on oxygen twenty-four hours a day and even