22/7/19 What are microbes and give examples of the different types? Microbes consist of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, with bacteria being the largest group made up of thousands of different species. These organisms can live in a wide range of environmental conditions and don’t necessarily need a host to reproduce.
Reference link Lee, Gary Mark. & Bishop, Penny. (2015). Microbiology and infection control for health professionals. Melbourne, Vic: Pearson Australia
Some microbes cause disease and are known as pathogens. They have specialized structures that allow them to cause disease.
28/07/2020 Choose ONE specialized structure and explain how this help some bacteria cause disease e.g., a peptidoglycan layer, cell wall, fimbriae, pilli, etc Fimbriae or pili are hair like structures found on the bacterial cell wall but are different from flagella since they are short and stiff. These structures are used by the bacteria to attach to the surface. They permit pathogens to adhere to surfaces and also prevents phagocytosis.
27/07/2020 Name ONE disease caused by bacteria
*if you know nothing about the disease you may include some details here (this will not be required in part B) Neisseria gonorrhea
Reference link Today, Kenneth. 2020. Bacterial Structure in Relationship to Pathogenicity.
29/07/2020 Choose ONE specialized structure and explain how this help some fungi cause disease e.g., hyphae, spores, Fungal spores are either multicellular or unicellular and develop into various phases via the complicated fungal life cycle. Fungi reproduce either sexually or asexually via spores, which are found in the air. Spores originating from fungal pathogens cause airborne diseases. Fungal spores may initiate infectious disease or allergic reactions.
Date(s) Name ONE example of diseases caused by fungi
*if you know nothing about the disease you may include some details here (this will not be required in part B) Allergic sinusitis
26/07/2020 Choose ONE specialized structure and explain how this helps some viruses cause disease.
e.g., envelope Viral envelop consists of viral adhesins that enable the virus to attach to a cell surface. For instance, hemagglutinin on the influenza virus enables the virus to attach to sialic acid on host respiratory or intestinal membranes.
Reference link Lumen. (2020). Virulence Factors of Bacterial and Viral Pathogens.
24/07/2020 Name ONE example of diseases caused by viruses
*if you know nothing about the disease you may include some details here (this will not be required in part B) HIV/AIDS
Reference link Lumen. (2020). Virulence Factors of Bacterial and Viral Pathogens. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/microbiology/chapter/virulence-factors-of-bacterial-and-viral-pathogens/
However, not all microbes actually cause disease. Some microbes are beneficial, such as the normal flora of our bodies both inside the body and on the skin.
26/07/2020 Describe two examples of normal flora (bacteria or fungi) that are beneficial, AND you can LINK to hand hygiene e.g., related to skin or is passed on from contaminated hands. There are two categories of fungal or bacterial normal flora, including resident and transient flora. Resident flora includes microbial organisms that are located superficial cells of stratum corneum or on skin. Resident flora has protective functions that include competing for nourishment in their environment and microbial antagonism. Transient flora is found on the superficial skin and is more likely to be cleared via hand washing. Transient microbial organisms might not necessarily replicate on the skin, but they may multiply and survive on the skin. Transient flora is normally obtained by health care workers while attending to patients or their working surfaces. The transmittance of transient flora depends on species of the organisms, surface moisture, and the population of the microorganisms.
24/07/2020 Where do microbes live on or within the skin? (relate back to skin structure) Microbes are found on both the skin surface and in the skin layers.
Distinguish between transients and pathogens and show how viruses, bacteria, or fungi fit into these. How can pathogens be transmitted? Can normal flora become transient or pathogenic – if so, how/why?
24/07/2020 Define pathogen: A pathogen is a foreign body that has the potential of causing illness in the body.
23/07/2020 Define Transient microbes: Transient microbes are microorganisms that can only be sequestrated and cultured from samples of skin.
20/07/2020 How are pathogens may be transmitted: Pathogens may be transmitted through the air like for the case of fungal spores, via contact with contaminated surfaces or hands, or through the exchange of body fluids like blood from an infected person to a healthy one.
20/07/2020 How can normal flora become pathogenic? Give TWO reasons. Normal flora may become pathogenic through a break in the skin through injury, skin disease, or medical procedure. A normal flora may also turn pathogenic when the host is immunocompromised either via immunosuppressive medicine or diseases like cancer.
Reference link Lee, Natasha. (2014, Aug). Microorganisms Found on the Skin.
Hygiene procedures are essential in nursing and in everyday life to prevent the transmission of pathogens. Two main procedures are washing hands with soap and water, or by cleaning hands with hand sanitizers. For each of these procedures explain how it works to improve hygiene. Give advantages and disadvantages to each procedure. When and under what circumstances would we use each of these procedures?
Soap – For soap, explain how it works to improve hygiene.
20/07/2020 How does soap work to reduce microbes? HINT: Chemistry of soap. Soap and water do not kill pathogens, but help remove them from the skin. Running water might remove the pathogens quite well, but soap expands efficiency by pulling the pathogens from the skin surfaces. Pathogens remain on hands by sticking to oil or grease on the hands. Soaps works to remove the pathogens since it has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic ends, and thus it sticks to both oils and water, removing pathogens when you rinse hands.
Reference link Hickok, Kimberly. (2020, Mar 5). Why Do We Use Soap?
21/07/2020 How does friction help to remove/reduce microbes? (consider skin structure) Scrubbing increases friction which helps removes loose skin flakes together with the dirt and pathogens
Reference link Hickok, Kimberly. (2020, Mar 5). Why Do We Use Soap? https://www.livescience.com/57044-science-of-soap.html
21/07/2020 Soap is alkaline, and the skin has an acid mantle. Explain how the change in pH helps remove/reduce microbes. The soap alkalinity reduces the skin acidity, which makes some pathogens unable to survive on the skin; thus, they die due to reduced pH and fall off.
Reference link Hickok, Kimberly. (2020, Mar 5). Why Do We Use Soap? https://www.livescience.com/57044-science-of-soap.html
22/07/2020 Advantages of soap: Has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties and therefore, clears pathogens that attach to oil and water effectively
22/07/2020 Disadvantages of soap: Does not kill the pathogens
Reference link Hickok, Kimberly. (2020, Mar 5). Why Do We Use Soap? https://www.livescience.com/57044-science-of-soap.html
22/07/2020 Give an example of when it is necessary to use soap? When hands are clearly seen to be dirt or having food remains. Soap and water are efficient since oils and proteins in food reduce the destruction ability of alcohol sanitizers.
21/07/2020 What happens to the normal flora when you use soap? Soap does not destroy normal flora, but it reduces their numbers on the skin surfaces.
Reference link Hickok, Kimberly. (2020, Mar 5). Why Do We Use Soap?
21/07/2020 What happens to transients and/or pathogens when you use soap? Soap removes transient pathogens from the skin by binding them to water and oil, making them to detach from the skin surface.
Sanitizing gel – explain how sanitizing gel works to improve hygiene.
22/07/2020 How does gel work? Gels have alcohol incorporated in them and work by denaturing protein surfaces of pathogens and thus killing them.
Reference link Hickok, Kimberly. (2020, Mar 5). Why Do We Use Soap?
22/07/2020 Advantages of gel: Gels are advantageous since there do not require to be used together with water and, therefore, can be used anywhere.
22/07/2020 Disadvantages of gel: The gel does not kill all pathogens since it only kills enveloped pathogens leaving the unenveloped ones.
22/07/2020 Give examples of when it is necessary to use gel. After shaking hands with a person
24/07/2020 What happens to the normal flora when using the gel? The gel kills some normal flora that is enveloped, reducing them in number while leaving the unenveloped ones in large numbers. Therefore, gel disrupts the balance in normal flora composition.
The purpose of this research is to determine the effectiveness of hand hygiene practices by comparing hands treated with soap, with hands treated with sanitizing gel.
Describe how we will measure the effectiveness of these procedures by growing organisms in the lab using blood agar
20/07/2020 What exactly are will you be measuring or comparing in the lab? The population of the microorganisms
24/07/2020 We will be using Petri dishes containing blood agar. What exactly is blood agar? Blood agar is a multipurpose enriched culture media regularly applied in culturing fastidious microorganisms as well as differentiate bacteria using hemolytic properties.
21/07/2020 How are we replicating growing conditions for SOME of the types of microbes?
Tell us about the general conditions that microbes need, and how we are simulating these in the lab.
Explain why we are unable to grow viruses. Growing conditions for microbes in the laboratory are replicated by providing a culture medium with the correct pH for the microbes, regulating solute concentration, humidity, temperature, nutrients, oxygen, and carbon (VI) oxide. Replicating the growing conditions can be done by using incubators and refrigerators to maintain the correct condition.
The general culturing conditions for microbes include temperature, pH, moisture, and oxygen. The pH can be simulated by preparing the media with the appropriate pH. Temperature can be simulated by either an incubator or refrigerator. Humidity is simulated by using water or vapor.
Viruses are difficult to grow in the laboratory since they are obligate intracellular parasites that need living cells to grow.
30/07/2020 Even though we are not growing viruses, explain why we are including them in this research. How will your results relate to viruses? Viruses cannot be grown but are included in this research since failure to practice hand hygiene may lead to viruses like the norovirus that causes diarrhea affecting a person or adenovirus affecting a person’s respiratory. The result of this research relates to viruses since hand hygiene is likely to reduce viral infections.