Introduction
Neisseria meningitidis is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen which is hosted only by humans and colonizes nasopharynx. It is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis and meningococcal infections worldwide. Over half a million meningococcal cases occur annually and causes large epidemic and endemic outbreaks. Thus, meningococcal infection is one of the top ten infectious cause of death in the whole world (Tzeng & Stephens, 2000). Although the bacterium causes numerous human diseases, the most often associated with serious consequences are meningitis and meningococcemia (severe sepsis). Meningitis usually develops within a week and causes the list of symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, eye sensitivity to light, fever, headache, and stiff neck. The meningococcemia is characterized by fever and rash (petechial or purpuric), malaise, vomiting, drowsiness, hypotension, acute adrenal hemorrhage, multiorgan failure, and shock (Centers for control disease and prevention, 2005). Also, meningococcal disease include pneumonia, conjunctivitis, urethritis, sinusitis, otitis, septic arthritis, and purulent pericarditis, where 10-15% of cases are fatal, and 10% of the patients who recover, usually have hearing loss (Ferguson et al., 2002).
History of meningococci
Weichselbaum was the first person who identified the bacterium from the cerebrospinal fluid of a person who suffered from meningitis. While the first descriptions of meningococcal meningitis were made in the early 19th century in Switzerland by Vieusseux (1805), in Massachusetts by Danielson and Mann (1806), and in the early 20th century in Africa. In the nineteenth century, meningococcal infections were treated using serum therapy and sulfonamides introduced by Flex...
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Oppenheim, B. (1997). Antibiotic resistance in Neisseria meningitidis. Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication Of The Infectious Diseases Society Of America, 24 Suppl 1S98-S101. Retrieved from: http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/Supplement_1/S98.full.pdf
Rouphael, N.G. & Stephens, S.S. (2012). Neisseria meningitidis: Biology, Microbiology, and Epidemiology. Neisseria meningitidis: Advanced Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology. 799: 1-20. Retrieved from: http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/954/chp%253A10.1007%252F978-1-61779-346-2_1.pdf?auth66=1385454607_76421ed179b1332c8755d5ca9118b502&ext=.pdf
Tzeng, Y. & Stephens, D.S. (2000). Epidemiology and pathogenesis of Neisseria meningitidis. Microbes and Infection. 2(6): 687-700. Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1286457900003567
The microbe Naegleria fowleri, commonly called the brain-eating-amoeba, was first identified from a fatal case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in Australia in 1961. In 1965, three further cases of fatal PAM were found, from which clinical and laboratory investigations pointed to a relation with acute bacterial meningitis among the cases of an unknown etiology. According to Fowler & Carter (1965), when post-death examinations of the bodies were performed researchers found that “microscopically the meningeal exudate consisted of about equal proportions of neutrophil leukocytes and chronic inflammatory cells, amongst which small, often degenerate amoebae were sparsely distributed” (p.740). The species of the organism that caused the amoeboflagellate related disease was later named Naegleria fowleri after one of the primary authors of the report, M. Fowler. Butt reports that the first case of PAM in the United States occurred in Florida in 1962 and a further retrospective study reported by dos Santos Netos suggested that additional identified cases of PAM in Virginia may have dated as far back as 1937 (as cited in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013, Pathogen). As research on the microbe ensues, more cases of PAM are beginning to surface and the search for a cure to the fatal infection is imperative.
mutans was problematic due to its difference with Bergey’s Manual result for the catalase test. However, after comparing it with a peers results, it seems very possible that the strain we are working with varies from the strain used in Bergey’s. Bacteria possess the ability to develop varying phenotypes within the same species due to frequent mutation and horizontal gene transfer. Therefore, it is possible that the results obtained in our lab may vary from those provided in Bergey’s Manual. Arriving to the conclusion that the Gram negative bacteria was Klebsiella pneumoniae was much more direct. Using Bergey’s Flowchart for identification, the bacteria shared the test results and had a similar shape and
Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is a nosocomial, gram-negative bacterium commonly associated with pneumonia, meningitis, bacteremia, wound and urinary tract infections [1,2,25]. These bacteria are capable of preventing desiccation allowing it to thrive before prolong periods on various wet or dry surfaces. As an opportunistic human pathogen, A. baumannii may colonize a patient without causing any infections or symptoms, especially in tracheostomy sites or open wounds [26]. Historically, A. baumannii infections were clinically treated with different classes of antibiotics such as aminoglycosides, carbapenems, macrolides, and penicillins [2]. However, several studies have recently reported outbreaks of drug-resistant A. baumannii (MRAB) that were unaffected by standard clinical antibiotic treatments [2,1]. Consequently, treating patients infected with A. baumannii has become a clinical challenge and a serious public health concern [2,7].
Rifkind, David, and Geraldine L. Freeman. The Nobel Prize Winning Discoveries in Infectious Diseases. London: Elsevier/Academic, 2005.
Clinical Infectious Diseases, 49(3), 438-443. Doi:10.1086/600391. See full address and map. Medicare.gov/Hospital Compare - The Official U.S. Government Site for Medicare (n.d).
Meningitis is believed to have existed since ancient times (Mandal, 2012), and the World Health Organization (2014) continues to regard it as a global public health risk even to this present day, with the disease becoming so prominent in sub-Saharan Africa that the area itself has been dubbed “the meningitis belt”. Meningitis is a worldwide problem that demands attention and solutions. Meningitis is a disease that specifically affects the membranes of the brain and spinal cord, otherwise known as the meninges, causing the aforementioned membranes to become inflamed. With respect to its initial cause, the severity of meningitis can range from the infected being able to recover independently (with the natural performance of their immune systems alone), to potentially fatal (in which the infected will then require immediate medical attention in the form of
Due to its tendency to be both a viral and bacterial disease, meningitis can prove difficult to treat. Its dual tendencies also mean that various methods are used to attack the disease. In order to treat meningitis, different aspects of the disease must be discovered first. The type of organism causing the infection, the age of the patient, and the extent of the infection must all be taken into account (WebMD, sec. 8). Any time meningitis is found, immediate treatment with antibiotics is required, and continuation of antibiotic treatment depends on whether a bacteria or a virus is causing th...
Meningitis, it’s an infection in the cerebral spinal fluid and inflammation of the meninges; the three outer layers of the brain. To be more specific, those three layers are called the Dura mater, Arachnoid mater, and the Pia mater. There are three main types of meningitis that will be discussed throughout this paper; viral, bacterial, and fungal. Each form is very similar but they all vary in terms of causative organisms, treatment and severity. Although meningitis is not very common, it can become very severe and always needs to be treated immediately.
There is an estimated 1.2 million cases of Meningococcal and 135 000 deaths world wide every year.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has presented many problems in our society, including an increased chance of fatality due to infections that could have otherwise been treated with success. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, but overexposure to these drugs give the bacteria more opportunities to mutate, forming resistant strains. Through natural selection, those few mutated bacteria are able to survive treatments of antibiotics and then pass on their genes to other bacterial cells through lateral gene transfer (Zhaxybayeva, 2011). Once resistance builds in one patient, it is possible for the strain to be transmitted to others through improper hygiene and failure to isolate patients in hospitals.
In the documentary, Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria, reporter David Hoffman investigates this new untreatable infection along two individuals and a bacterial virus within a hospital. The first individual Hoffman investigates is Addie Rerecich of Arizona, she was treated for a staph infection with antibiotics, but other complications arise. Addie had a lung transplant, she was given several different antibiotics, but her body became pan-bacteria, non-resistance to the bacteria. Addie’s life was on the edge, she had to be on life support, and finally she received new lungs. The transplant helped Addie but it would take years before could go back to normal before the infection. The second individual is David Ricci; he had his leg amputated in India after a train accident. The antibiotic treatment he received became toxic to his body increasing problems. While in India, he underwent surgery almost every day because of infections he was developing. Back in Seattle, doctors found the NDM-1 resistance gene in his body; NDM-1 gene is resistance to almost all antib...
This turn of events presents us with an alarming problem. Strains of bacteria that are resistant to all prescribed antibiotics are beginning to appear. As a result, diseases such as tuberculosis and penicillin-resistant gonorrhea are reemerging on a worldwide scale (1). Resistance first appears in a population of bacteria through conditions that favor its selection. When an antibiotic attacks a group of bacteria, cells that are highly susceptible to the medicine will die.
Penicillin G targets gram-positive and gram-negative, cocci bacteria and is expected to kill Isolate A by...
The emergence of Penicillin marked the dawn of the antibiotic era and allowed for diseases which normally ended in death or dysfunction to be eliminated and for people to carry on living healthy lives. It is estimated that 90% of children who had meningitis of the bacterial kind in the pre-antibiotic era would either die or survive the illness with a physical impairment. Strep throat, whooping cough, tuberculosis and pneumonia are among some of the other fatal bacterial diseases which would usually result in a fatality. Antibiotics decreased the mortality rates, and so new antibiotics were formed.
I intend to research the prevention and the after effects of bacterial meningitis. The reason for considering this line of research is because it is widely discussed in the media and in every school, students are getting vaccinations against this disease. However, some are not due to strong beliefs in their religion, after effects or belief that it might affect the body in a negative way, which may result in other medical conditions. My question is; ‘How can bacterial meningitis be prevented and what are the significant after-effects of this disease?’. I changed my question multiple times as my topics were not broad enough, less specific and had limited information. I refined my question by brainstorming what I would specifically want to learn