MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY

SY 2016-2017
HANDOUT #1

OBJECTIVES:
1. Define Microbiology and other terms associated with Microbiology.
2. Discuss the classification of microorganisms.
3. Discuss the scope & history of microbiology.
4. List the roles of microbes in the environment.
5. List the impact of infectious disease

MICROBIOLOGY - Study of organisms too small to be seen by the naked eye (microorganisms)/ MICROBES
MICROBES- viruses, bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and certain types of algae and fungi
MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY - study of pathogens, the diseases they cause, and the bodys defenses against disease;
concerned with epidemiology, transmission of pathogens, disease prevention measures, aseptic techniques,
treatment of infectious diseases, immunology, and the production of vaccines to protect people and animals against
infectious diseases
CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY OR DIAGNOSTIC MICROBIOLOGY - is concerned with the laboratory diagnosis of infectious
diseases of humans; branch of Medical Microbiology

MICROBES

Acellular Cellular
Infectious Agents Microorganisms

Prions Viruses Prokaryotes Eukaryotes

Archaea Bacteria Algae Fungi Protozoa

ROLES OF MICROBES:
1. indigenous microflora (or indigenous microbiota)

inhibit the growth of pathogens in those areas of the body where they live by occupying space,
depleting the food supply, and secreting materials (waste products, toxins, antibiotics, etc.)
that may prevent or reduce the growth of pathogens

2. opportunistic pathogens
3. essential for life on this planet - produce oxygen through photosynthesis
4. decomposers or saprophytes- decomposition of dead organisms and the waste products of living
organisms; aid in fertilization; break down dead and dying organic materials into nitrates,
phosphates, and other chemicals necessary for the growth of plants
5. Nitrogen fixation - Nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live on or near the roots of legumes convert free
nitrogen from the air into ammonia in the soil. Nitrifying bacteria then convert the ammonia
into nitrites and nitrates, which are nutrients used by plants
 6. BIOREMEDIATION use of microbes in the decomposition of industrial wastes (oil spills)
7. Role in the Food chain - Algae and bacteria serve as food for tiny animals.
8. aid in the digestion of food
E. coli bacteria that live in the human intestinal tract produce vitamins K and B1, which are absorbed
and used by the human body.
cellulose-eating protozoa in the intestinal tracts of termites break down the wood that the termites
consume into smaller molecules that the termites can use as nutrients
9. BIOTECHNOLOGY - Many microbes are essential in various food and beverage industries, whereas
others are used to produce certain enzymes and chemicals

10. Some bacteria and fungi produce antibiotics that are used to treat patients with infectious diseases.
11. Essential in genetic engineering
Microbiologists have engineered bacteria and yeasts to produce a variety of useful substances,
such as insulin, various types of growth hormones, interferons, and materials for use as vaccines.

12. cell models

13. Microbes cause diseases:

infectious disease - results when a pathogen colonizes the body and subsequently causes
disease; cause more illnesses and death
microbial intoxication - results when a person ingests a toxin (poisonous substance) that has
been produced by a microbe

IMPACT OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Infectious diseases are still killers in the resource-rich world
Globally, infectious diseases cause more than 20% of all deaths
In the USA (and the picture is similar in Europe):
deaths from HIV peaked at 50 000 in 1995, but still exceed 15 000 each year
influenza with underlying respiratory and circulatory issues results in 15 000
deaths each year and affects millions
some 3 to 4 million people carry hepatitis C virus, and cancer. 12 000 develop
life-threatening chronic liver disease
drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of concern, as are food-borne
infections and healthcare-associated infections
 Infections continue to emerge or re-emerge

Modern lifestyles and technical developments facilitate transmission of disease

The reasons for the resurgence of infectious diseases are multiple. They include:
1. New patterns of travel and trade (especially food commodities), new agricultural
practices, altered sexual behaviour, medical interventions and overuse of antibiotics.
2. The evolution of multi-drug resistant bacteria, such as MRSA, and their frequency in both
healthcare and community settings
3. Breakdown of economic, social and political systems especially in the resource-poor world
has weakened medical services and increased the effects of poverty and
malnutrition.
4. The dramatic increase in air travel has facilitated the spread of infection and increased the
threat of new pandemics.

Bubonic plague
Smallpox
rabies, anthrax, dysentery, smallpox, ergotism, botulism, measles, typhoid fever, typhus fever,
diphtheria, and syphilis
influenza
 AIDS
Hepatitis B
SARS
EVD (Ebola Virus Disease)

PIONEERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
I. Anton van Leeuwenhoek (16321723)

first person to see live bacteria and protozoa

Father of Microbiology, Father of Bacteriology, Father of Protozoology
Created single-lens microscopes (simple microscopes)
animalcules

Many of the scientists of that time believed that life could develop spontaneously from inanimate
substances, such as decaying corpses, soil, and swamp gases
The idea that life can arise spontaneously from nonliving material - theory of spontaneous generation
or abiogenesis

THEORY OF BIOGENESIS - life can only arise from preexisting life

first proposed by a German scientist, Rudolf Virchow (1858)

II. Louis Pasteur (18221895)

a French chemist, made numerous contributions to the newly emerging field of microbiology
his contributions are considered by many people to be the foundation of the science of microbiology
and a cornerstone of modern medicine
Significant contributions:
1. alcoholic fermentation - demonstrated that different types of microbes produce different
fermentation products
2. disproved the theory of spontaneous generation
3. discovered forms of life that could exist in the absence of oxygen - aerobes; anaerobes
4. pasteurization- process to kill microbes that were causing wine to spoil; used to kill
pathogens in many types of liquids.
5. discovered the infectious agents that caused the silkworm diseases that were crippling the
silk industry in France and discovered how to prevent such diseases
6. made significant contributions to the germ theory of diseasethe theory that specific
microbes cause specific infectious diseases.
anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis, tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium
tuberculosis
7. championed changes in hospital practices to minimize the spread of disease by pathogens.
8. developed vaccines to prevent chicken cholera, anthrax, and swine erysipelas (a skin
disease)
9. developed a vaccine to prevent rabies in dogs and successfully used the vaccine to treat
human rabies.
III. Robert Koch (18431910) - a German physician
Contributions to the science of microbiology:
1. made many significant contributions to the germ theory of disease
2. developed the Kochs Postulates

3. discovered that B. anthracis produces spores, capable of resisting adverse conditions

4. developed methods of fixing, staining, and photographing bacteria
5. developed methods of cultivating bacteria on solid media
R.J. Petri - invented Petri dish, in which to culture bacteria on solid media
Frau Hessesuggested the use of agar (a polysaccharide obtained from seaweed) as
a solidifying agent
6. discovered the bacterium (M. tuberculosis) that causes tuberculosis and the bacterium
(Vibrio cholerae) that causes cholera

7. work on tuberculin (a protein derived from M. tuberculosis) ultimately led to the

development of a skin test valuable in diagnosing tuberculosis

Exceptions to Kochs Postulates:

1. Certain pathogens that will not grow on artificial media - viruses, rickettsias (bacteria), chlamydias
(bacteria), and the bacteria that cause leprosy and syphilis
Viruses, rickettsias, and chlamydias - obligate intracellular pathogens (or obligate intracellular
parasites; can only survive and multiply within living host cells
In the laboratory, the leprosy bacterium (Mycobacterium leprae) is propagated in armadillos, and
the spirochetes of syphilis (Treponema pallidum) grow well in the testes of rabbits and
chimpanzees.
2. To fulfill Kochs Postulates, it is necessary to infect laboratory animals with the pathogen being
studied. However, many pathogens are species-specific, meaning that they infect only one
species of animal.
3. Some diseases, called synergistic infections, are caused not by one particular microbe, but by the
combined effects of two or more different microbes.
acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis (ANUG; as trench mouth) and bacterial vaginosis -
very difficult to reproduce such synergistic infections in the laboratory
4. Certain pathogens become altered when grown in vitro- some become less pathogenic, whereas others
become non-pathogenic; Thus, they will no longer infect animals after being cultured on artificial
media