INTRODUCTON TO MEDICAL

MICROBIOLOGY

Prof. S. S. Taiwo
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• History of microbiology

• Microorganisms and their classes

• Burden of infections caused by microorganisms

• Scope of microbiology: basic and applied

• Medical/clinical microbiology

• Functional aspects of medical/clinical microbiology

PREAMBLE

• Microbiology is derived from the Greek words; micros (which means

small), bios (which means life) and logos (which means science)

• Microbiology is a branch of science concerned with study of micro-

organisms

• Micro-organisms are living forms, microscopic in size, and too small to be

clearly perceived by the unaided eye.

• Are present everywhere in nature (microbial world); environment (soil,

water, ice, air etc), in animals (incl humans) and plants
History of microbiology
• Pre-historic microbiology and infectious diseases
• Biblical account: Plague of “Baalpeor” (Numbers 25) and leprosy were transmissible conditions
• 460 BC: Hippocrates postulated microorganism to cause tuberculosis or ‘consumption’
• 384-322 BC: Aristotle postulated theory of “spontaneous generation”
• About 98–55 BC: Lucretius, a Roman philosopher, postulated microorganism to cause disease

• 17th century microbiology: origin of microbiology

• 1625-1630 AD: Francesco Stelluti an Italian scientist observed microorganism in bees and weevils
• 1665: Robert Hooke was the first to view unseen life under a microscope in a mould
• 1676: Anton von Leuwenhoek, a Dutch scientist, recorded the first observation of minute living things,
which he called “small animalcules” using a microscope he invented

• 18th century microbiology: spontaneous generation vs germ theory of disease

• Archimé de Pouche and John Needham supported “spontaneous generation” while Lazaro Spallanzani, Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu, Edward Jenner and Jakob Henle supported “germ theory of disease”
• 19th century microbiology: golden age of microbiology
• 1835: Agostini Bassi described silkworm to be caused by a fungus
• 1847: Ignaz Philip Semmelweis introduced handwashing to stop infection transfer during puerperium
• 1857: Louis Pasteur, a French chemist described fermentation by microorganisms for production of
wine and beer in industries in Europe
• 1876: Robert Koch, a German scientist, used anthrax bacillus to formulate the ‘Koch’s postulate’ of
germ theory of infection
• 20th century microbiology: modern era of microbiology
• 1930s: Antibiotic era: Alexander Fleming in 1929
• 1950s: Molecular microbiology era started after unveiling the structure of DNA by James Watson and
Francis Cricks in 1953
• 1970s: Fredrick Sanger described method of DNA sequencing
• 1983: Karry B. Mullis described polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique for amplifying DNA
• 1980s: Stanley Falkow applied Molecular Koch’s postulates to microbial pathogenicity
 Classification of microorganisms
• Living things can be divided into 5 kingdoms:

• Kingdom Monerans – prokaryotes (bacteria)

• Kingdom Protists – including protozoans

• Kingdom Plants

• Kingdom Fungi

• Kingdom Animalia (includes homo sapiens)

 Burden of infectious diseases
• Infectious diseases (IDs) vary greatly in occurrence, distribution and mortality
• IDs cause millions of deaths every year (more in developing countries)
• In 2002, of 56 million deaths worldwide,14 millions (about 25%) were caused by IDs
• Many pandemic of IDs are occurring worldwide with considerable mortality
• HIV/AIDS (1983), influenza (H1N1 in 2009), SARS-COV (in 2002/3), MERS-COV (in 2012)
• Since December 2019, deaths from SARS-COV-2 infection (COVID-19) worldwide is over 6 million millions

• Developed countries:
• In USA, mortality from IDs declined from 797/100,000 population in 1900 to 36/100,000 population in 1980
but rose to 63/100,000 population in 1995 largely due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

• Developing countries:
• Data on IDs are not accurate
• Several IDs are endemic: malaria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, leprosy, neglected tropical parasitic diseases,
Lassa fever, childhood vaccine preventable diseases, hepatitis etc
• Many IDs occur in epidemic form: Ebola, Lassa, Yellow fever, cholera etc.
Scope of microbiology: Basic vs Applied
• Basic Microbiology: Scope could be based on;

• 1. Type of microorganisms
• Bacteriology
• Virology
• Mycology
• Protozoology
• Helminthology
• Entomology
• Algology or phycology

• 2. Activities or characteristics of microorganisms

• Microbial cytology
• Microbial morphology
• Microbial physiology
• Microbial ecology
• Microbial taxonomy
• Microbial genetic and molecular biology
• Applied microbiology

• Medical/Clinical Microbiology*

• Veterinary Microbiology

• Pharmaceutical microbiology

• Industrial Microbiology and biotechnology

• Agricultural microbiology

• Environmental Microbiology

• Food and dairy Microbiology

• Aero-microbiology

• Geo-microbiology
Medical/Clinical Microbiology
• This is the part of microbiology concerned with the study of
microorganisms of medical or clinical importance especially in relation to
infectious diseases

• Infections in individuals (Diagnostic & Therapeutic Microbiology)

• Aetiology (causation)
• Pathogenesis (mode of transmission, evolution and course of infection)
• Laboratory diagnosis
• Treatment

• Infections in the community (Public Health Microbiology)

• Epidemiology (study of mass disease)
• Prevention and Control of infection
Functional aspects of Medical Microbiology
• Medical Bacteriology: study of bacteria of medical importance

• Medical Mycology: study of fungi of medical importance

• Medical Parasitology: study of protozoans, helminthes and arthropods of

medical importance

• Virology: study of viruses (including prions) of medical importance

• Microbial Immunology: study of immunity and immune responses to

micro-organisms
References

• Bryce J, Boschi-Pinto J, Shibuya K, Black RE. WHO estimates of the cause

of death in children. Lancet. 2005; 365: 1147-1152

• Cohen ML. Changing patterns of infectious disease. Nature. 2000; 406:

762-767

• Millar BC, Xu J, Moore JE. Molecular diagnostics of medically important

infections. Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 2007; 9: 21-40