Essay On Biofilms

Introduction

Biofilms are complex communities of microorganism that can adhere to living or non-living surfaces. In the environment, biofilms divide by attaching and growing on surfaces. They are found in soil, aquatic system, medical devices, living tissues such as tooth, heart valves, ears and lungs. Biofilm formation is a process where the planktonic bacteria comes in contact with a surface, and producing the extracellular polymeric matrix to protect themselves against immune cells and antimicrobials (Chauchan et al., 2009). There is a difference between a planktonic bacteria, and a bacterial biofilm. The planktonic bacteria, moves around freely, and it is single celled organism; is responsible for acute bacterial infections. It can not change genetic activity. The bacterial biofilms are multi-cellular organisms, it can initiate a change in genetic activity. Biofilms are very important, because they can create energy loses, equipment damage, contamination,

These infections are leading cause of healthcare-associated infections. According to NIH, 80% of all chronic infections are biofilm related. And according to CDC, 65 % of all microbial infections are directly related to the growth of the biofilms. Biofilms are very important for public health due to some of the biofilms, which exhibit decreasing susceptibility to antimicrobials. Biofilms are found nearly everywhere, and have a major impact on the health and well-being of humans along with health industries. Most biofilms are in a benign, slippery coating formation but others may cause serious damage to the health of an individual. A significant concern that sticks out to individuals is the contamination of medical utensils and devices such as urinary catheters, implants, etc. Biofilms can also cause nosocomial infections. Nosocomial infections are infections retrieved from a hospital setting, or hospital acquired infections