Streptococcus Pneumoniae

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In accordance with the World Health Organization, pneumonia still remains one of the main killers of children under the age of five, taking more than 1.1 million lives of boys and girls annually (WHO Pneumonia factsheet, 2013). Pneumonia is more prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It is well known that pneumonia is a disease of respiratory system that affects the alveoli, which are the constituent part of the lungs. Normally alveoli fill with air during the breath of a healthy person, while the one with pneumonia has alveoli, which are filled with fluid and pus; hence the breathing process is painful and limits the oxygen consumption by organism. Pneumonia can be caused by several infectious agents, such as bacteria, fungi and viruses. The most common are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Pneumocystis jiroveci. However, significant proportion of all pneumonia is caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. In fact, the diseases caused by S. pneumoniae also include sinusitis, meningitis, otitis and some other problems, including septic arthritis, endocarditis and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (WHO Pneumonia factsheet, 2013). The main aim of this paper is to familiarize the reader with Streptococcus pneumoniae and one particular disease that it causes - pneumonia.
Taxonomy, morphology, physiology, virulence factors of Streptococcus pneumoniae
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a bacterium, which has the following lineage: Firmicutes; Bacilli; Lactobacillales; Streptococcaceae; Streptococcus; Streptococcus pneumoniae (NCBI database taxonomy, 2001).
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a facultative anaerobe, which after performing a Gram-staining appears as blue-black cocci with the lancet shape, mostly in pair...

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...nt Streptococcus pneumoniae.
2012. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.nu.edu.kz:2686/article/10.1007%2Fs11908-012-0260-x/fulltext.html

Peters-Golden, M. Pneumonia (Chapter 15). 2010. Breathing in America:Diseases, Progress, and Hope: p.155. Retrieved from http://www.thoracic.org/education/breathing-in-america/resources/chapter-15-pneumonia.pdf

Pneumonia factsheet. 2013. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs331/en/

Poll, T., Opal, M.S. Pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention of pneumococcal pneumonia. 2009. Lancet 374: p. 1543–56. Retrieved from http://www.umcutrecht.nl/NR/rdonlyres/A34BBBAE-1C56-42C1-B308-070A781CE82C/20643/2Review_pneumocpneumonia_poll_opal_lancet.pdf
Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4. 2001. NCBI database taxonomy. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=170187

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