A new strain of Clostridium botulinum has been discovered that has caused many problems. To begin, this discovery is important as this strain of Clostridium botulinum is responsible for the deadly illness, botulism. As a result, the scientists that discovered this new strain, they decided to keep their findings to themselves and not to to the public. Not to mention that another reason why this new strain of Clostridium botulinum is important is because it is one of the first to be identified in 40 years. Ultimately, the finding of the new strain of Clostridium botulinum is important as it could affect the future effectively. Clostridium botulinum is a type of bacterium that is one of the main reasons for causing the deadly illness botulism. To …show more content…
These scientists utilized the scientific methods of relevant medical and biological safety procedures to protect themselves and the world from this new strain. This new type of Clostridium botulinum was the first to be discovered in 40 years; that is four decades of trying to find a type of this bacterium. In the article,”A Botulism Bind,” by Helen Branswell, the author states,” The new strain of C. botulinum was the first to be identified in 40 years, and perhaps more extraordinary; the researchers purposely withheld key details of their discovery”(Branswell,1). Another reason why this discovery is important is because of the chaos it can cause if it gets out into the world. For the purpose of the world’s safety, the scientists decided to keep key parts of this discovery a secret. First, this strain of Clostridium botulinum can cause bioterror and a single gram can be responsible for a million people’s death; inhaled, contact, anything. If a country or a person gets a hold of this, they have a deadly weapon that can kill millions of people within minutes. The author states,” A single gram of crystalline toxin,”evenly dispersed and inhaled, would kill more than
Clostridium difficile is a particularly challenging and difficult infection to control. Because Clostridium difficile spores can live on dry surfaces for long periods of time, teaching must include the importance of cleaning surfaces and
After several biochemical tests, Unknown Bacteria #30 was identified as Staphylococcus aureus. After growing the bacteria on Nutrient Agar to ensure a pure sample, it was Gram stained to determine morphology and arrangement. It was observed to be a Gram positive staphylococci. Then, the bacteria was inoculated onto a Mannitol Salt Agar plate. After incubation, it was observed to have bacterial growth and the agar was yellow in color. According to the lab manual (2), MSA contains 7.5% NaCl and phenol red, a pH indicator. Due to the salt content, MSA is selective for salt-tolerant bacteria and the phenol red allows MSA to differentiate for mannitol fermentation. Mannitol fermentation is indicated by a yellow color change, which is the result of acidic byproducts changing the pH of the agar. The results showed that the bacteria was both salt-tolerant and able to ferment mannitol.
Foodborne Botulism Geographic’s have been reported in 46 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. Most Outbreaks come from western states like California, Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska. More than the half of the reported cases from foodborne Botulism since 1950. The Native population of Alaska has a distinctive issues with food borne Botulism. With
Chapter 9 of the literature shows the spread of bacteria called E. Coli 0157:H7 as well as its negative effects. E. Coli 0157:H7 was found in the beef and 25 million pounds had already been eaten. The food poisoning was spreading rapidly and 200,000 people got sick. Schlosser claimed that since there is bad in the meat that is why people are getting an ill eating hamburger. Americans were getting afraid and constantly people were getting infected, especially children, elderly, and people with impaired immune systems. According to the literature,“...progressed to diarrhea that filled a hospital toilet with blood… drilling holes in his skull to relieve pressure, inserting tubes in his chest to keep him breathing, as Shia toxins destroyed his
Clostridium difficile was discovered and isolated from neonates in 1935. It was initially considered a component of the fecal flora of newborns and not thought to be pathogenic (Keessen, Gaastra, & Lipman, 2010). The history of C. diff and other antibiotic resistant pathogens are closely related with the history of antibiotics. The first antibiotic discovered was penicillin by Alexander Fleming while working with Staphylococcus. With this discovery, a surge of natural and synthetic drugs was discovered to treat bacterial infections. During the 1970s, clindamycin and cephalosporins were highly used as an effective antibiotic against bacterial infection but at the same time disrupted the normal, healthy bowel flora, allowing C.
Fecal Transplantation more effective than an additional course of first line Vancomycin and Metronidazole antibiotic treatment?: A Literature Review
Many Americans die each year from complications connected to Clostridium difficile. It can ill a significant number of individuals as well as animals. The Clostridium difficile infection is the result of poor hygiene, misuse, overuse of antibiotics and an aging population. In this paper I will be discussing the following topics, what clostridium difficile means, what it causes, signs and symptoms, complications, treatment and the prevention.
Clostridium difficile has infected up to 500,000 people in the United States every year. Clostridium difficile is a bacterial infection it can cause diarrhea and also a fever. It has also caused death among people. There has been a recorded 14,000 deaths from Clostridium difficile a year.
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”.
Spot checks done in two laboratories led to concerns about correct shipment and containment of organisms. This resulted in similar checks in several other labs and eventually to the suspension of production, handling and shipping of these viruses across nine laboratories. However, what no one knew until Thursday was that the Bubonic plague was among the organisms being tested and possibly incorrectly handled. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) had found several concerns about the shipment of these organisms, but at the moment there is nothing to suggest that the public or workers in these labs are at risk. The Army claims that the black plague was not a fully virulent strain, though that is still being confirmed by the CDC. They also state that the virus was immediately and properly contained, though further investigation is
Clostridium difficile, also known as C. diff, is a bacterium that causes severe symptoms, including inflammation of the colon, which can be life threatening (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). It is a very common infection that affects hundreds of thousands in the United States alone. If not caught and treated early, it can be deadly. I kills thousands of people in the United States every year (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2017). It is extremely important to learn the signs and symptoms of this infection so treatment can begin as early as possible.
Many different diseases are caused by different species in the Clostridium genus, including tetanus, botulism, and gangrene ("Clostridium."). But perhaps the worst, but least publicly recognized, is Clostridium difficile, or CDI. This disease affects 500,000 people every year in the US alone, and of those infected, around 6% died within the first month of being infected (“Healthcare-Associated Infections.”). CDI is a gastrointestinal infection. It is found in soil, water, processed meat, and human and animal feces, but once the bacteria has reached a surface, it can linger there for months. If people touch a surface with CDI with their hands, they can then accidentally ingest it, leading to a potential CDI infection. Certain people are at much
The purpose of this study was to identify the unknown bacterium using biochemical tests and various methods that had been learned from previous the microbiology laboratory class. Identifying the unknown bacterium was determined by separating and differentiating possible
difficile to treat host from this pathogen. They use C. difficile strains, plasmids and conjugal transfer system to conjugate C. difficile gene. C. difficile strain 630 and VPI 10463was used and they first grew it anaerobically in Brain Heart Infusion media or it can be grown on an OXOID agar with 0.5% yeast extract and 0.1% cysteine, BHIS (2013). They also grew the bacteria in modified HySoy Medium by fermentation of 4-81. They then designed synthetic TcdA and TcdB genes using double allelic substitutions in GT catalytic site residues and used 630 toxin genome sequence for the recombinant genes (Donald, et. al, 2013). After synthesis TcdA and TcdB genes with their full length was subcloned as 8.1 kb and 7.1 kb NdeI-BlII fragments into pMTL84123 vector and E.coli strain Stb12 was the recombinant plasmid used (Donald, et. al, 2013). PCR was done using 5’ and 3’ flanking ends of the sites NotI and NdeI RE. Toxin A and B mutants was further mutated to modify or revert the toxins by site-directed mutagenesis using internal 2.5 kb NdeI-HindIII or 3.3 kb NdeI-EcoNI fragment subclones (Donald, et. al, 2013). Clostridim difficile was then conjugated by conjugal transfer of plasmids from E.coli and centrifugation was done to harvest the bacteria (Donald, et. al, 2013). Transformation that appeared on the media or agar was purified onto a BHIS agar and tested genetically modified toxins (Donald, et. al, 2013).
Botulism is a rare but very serious paralytic illness that is caused by botulinum toxin(potentially deadly neurotoxin) which is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The botulinum toxin can enter the body in 3 main ways: by the ingestion of the toxin from eating foods that contain the botulism toxin (food borne botulism), by the contamination of a wound by the bacterium in which the toxin is produced (wound botulism) and Infant botulism which is caused by consuming the spores of the botulinum bacteria, which then grow in the intestines and release the toxin. The powerful exotoxin (botulinum toxin) leads to secretory diarrhea. All forms of botulism can be fatal and are therefore considered to be