Microbes

- Microbes are tiny living things that are found all around us and are too small to be
seen by the naked eye. They live in water, soil, and in the air.

- The human body is home to millions of these microbes too, also called
microorganisms.

- Some microbes make us sick, others are important for our health. The most
common types are bacteria, viruses and fungi.

- There are also microbes called protozoa. These are tiny living things that are
responsible for diseases such as toxoplasmosis and malaria.

Infection :

- Infection is the invasion of an organism's body tissues by disease-causing agents,

their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agents and the
toxins they produce. Infectious disease, also known as transmissible disease or
communicable disease, is illness resulting from an infection.

- Infectious diseases can be caused by:

- Bacteria. These one-cell organisms are responsible for illnesses such as strep
throat, urinary tract infections and tuberculosis.

- Viruses. Even smaller than bacteria, viruses cause a multitude of diseases ranging
from the common cold to AIDS.
- Fungi. ...
- Parasites.

- When the deffence mechanisms of the individual become weak , he will be liable
more for infections , so many factors can influence the outcome of infection include :
- General health of the individual .
- Atmosphere
- Drug treatment
- Virulence of the organism
- Age of the person

- Bacteria are made up of just one cell

- Bacteria are single-cell organisms. Some bacteria need oxygen to survive and
others do not. Some love the heat, while others prefer a cold environment. Well-
known examples of bacteria include salmonella and staphylococcus bacteria.
- They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few
micrometres in length, bacteria have a number of shapes, ranging from spheres to
rods and spirals. Bacteria are classified into 5 groups according to their basic
shapes: spherical (cocci), rod (bacilli), spiral (spirilla), comma (vibrios) or corkscrew
(spirochaetes). They can exist as single cells, in pairs, chains or clusters.

- Most bacteria aren't dangerous for humans. Many of them even live on or in our
body and help us to stay healthy. For instance, lactic acid bacteria in the bowel help
us to digest food. Other bacteria help the immune system by fighting germs. Some
bacteria are also needed in order to produce certain types of food, like yogurt,
sauerkraut or cheese.

- Less than 1% of all bacteria are responsible for diseases – but this is just a rough
estimate because there are no exact numbers. Tuberculosis, for instance, is caused
by bacteria.

- Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics. These are medicines that kill the
bacteria or at least stop them from multiplying.

- Many other infections – including diarrhea, colds or tonsillitis – can also be caused
by bacteria, but viruses are usually responsible for them. Antibiotics aren't effective
against viruses. So it's not a good idea to start using them too soon if it's only
suspected that bacteria are causing the infection.

Viruses invade healthy cells and make us ill

- Unlike bacteria, viruses have no cells of their own. This means that they're not,
strictly speaking, living organisms. Instead, they're made up of one or more
molecules surrounded by a protein shell.

- The genetic information found inside this shell is needed for the viruses to
reproduce , replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses can infect
all types of life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria
and archaea.

- Many viruses are responsible for diseases. Some are harmless and only trigger a
minor cold, while others can cause serious diseases like AIDS. Other diseases
caused by viruses include influenza ("the flu"), measles or inflammation of the liver
(viral hepatitis).

- Viruses invade healthy cells and start to multiply from these cells. A virus can't
reproduce without these host cells.
- Not all viruses cause symptoms, and in many cases the body successfully fights
back against the attackers. This is the case with cold sores, which many people have
experienced at some time. They are caused by viruses that are found in certain nerve
cells and can lead to the typical blisters in some people if their immune system is
weak or run-down.

- It's relatively difficult to fight viruses with medication. To protect against some
viruses, the immune system can be “trained” by a vaccination so that the body is
better prepared to fight the virus.

Fungi are widespread

- Fungi can live in lots of different environments. The best-known fungi include yeast, mold and edible
fungi like mushrooms. Just like bacteria, some fungi occur naturally on the skin or in the body. But
fungi can also cause diseases.

- Diseases caused by fungi are called mycoses. Common examples include athlete’s
foot or fungal infections of the nails. Fungal infections can sometimes also cause
inflammations of the lungs, or of mucous membranes in the mouth or on the
reproductive organs, and become life- threatening for people who have a weakened
immune system.

- But humans have also benefited from the helpful qualities of some fungi. We owe
the discovery of penicillin to a type of mold that is used to produce this antibiotic.
- Gram stains : Gram staining is a common technique used to differentiate two large
groups of bacteria based on their different cell wall constituents. ... Gram positive
bacteria stain violet due to the presence of a thick layer of peptidoglycan in their cell
walls,

- Gram negative bacteria appear a pale reddish color when observed under a light
microscope following Gram staining. This is because the structure of their cell wall is
unable to retain the crystal violet stain so are colored only by the safranin
counterstain.

- Gram positive bacteria have a thick peptidoglycan layer and no outer lipid
membrane whilst Gram negative bacteria have a thin peptidoglycan layer and have an
outer lipid membrane.

- As Gram positive bacteria lack an outer lipid membrane, when correctly referring to
their structure rather than staining properties, are termed monoderms. The outer lipid
membrane possessed by Gram negative bacteria means that, when referring to their
physical structure, they are termed diderms.

What is the difference between pathogenic and non pathogenic bacteria?

- Pathogenic bacteria have certain genes and characteristics that endow them with
the capacity to cause disease. Nonpathogenic bacteria lack these characteristics. ...
So the pathogen now resides inside the human cell.

- There are so many examples of non pathogenic bacteria and few of them listed
below.
- Staphylococcus epidermidis, a part of normal skin flora.
- Lactobacillus acidophilus, a part of normal intestinal flora.
- Escherichia coli forms part of the normal flora within the large and small intestines.

- Viruses :In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an
organism 's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of
virus, in RNA. A virus has either DNA or RNA genes and is called a DNA virus or a
RNA virus.

- The envelopes are typically derived from portions of the host cell membranes
(phospholipids and proteins), but include some viral glycoproteins. They may help
viruses avoid the host immune system. Glycoproteins on the surface of the envelope
serve to identify and bind to receptor sites on the host's membrane.

- During attachment and penetration, the virus attaches itself to a host cell and injects
its genetic material into it. During uncoating, replication, and assembly, the viral DNA
or RNA incorporates itself into the host cell's genetic material and induces it to
replicate the viral genome.
Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon;

- alternative plural: protozoans), as the Greek equivalent of the German Urthiere,

meaning "primitive, or original animals are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either
free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or
organic tissues and debris .

- Historically, protozoans were regarded as "one-celled animals", because they often

possess animal-like behaviours, such as motility and predation, and lack a cell wall,
as found in plants and many algae.

- Some examples of protozoa are Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena and Trypanosoma.