Mycoplasma pneumoniae Essay -- Essays Papers

Mycoplasma pneumoniae Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is unique because of its small genome and physical size. The bacterium contains only 500-2300 Kba in its genome that produces about 700 different proteins. Its reduced genome has been clearly mapped. M. pneumoniae size range from 0.2 to 0.8 micrometer and are capable of passing through most filters designed to remove bacteria. The bacterium is the smallest living organism capable of replicating itself. The bacterium lacks a cell wall but has a three layered cell membrane with sterols. It can take on any shape from cocci to filamentous. An agar plates the colonies have a specific fried egg look. It lives mainly as a parasite in humans where it can maintain its osmotic balance with its environment. It has a strict dependence on the host for nutrients. They grow aerobically and use glucose as its main food source but need the host for amino acids, lipids, nucleotides and sterols. Disease: M. pneumoniae is generally referred to as primary atypical or walking pneumonia because the symptoms are not as sever as pneumonia. The symptoms include a dry hacking cough, fever, and headache. The symptoms will last for about 2 to 3 weeks. M. pneumoniae affects people worldwide. Typically only 33 % of people who have M. pneumoniae will get atypical pneumonia. The majority, 77 %, will come down with an upper tract infection (tracheaobronchitis). M. pneumoniae is transmitted through aerosol droplets. The bacterium is capable of infecting anyone at any time but it has a pattern of coming in the fall and winter and causing an outbreak every 4 to 8 years, although more tight communities occur more frequently. The pathogen rarely occurs on children less than 4 years of age. Since th... ...r and headache of which, 15 % required hospitalization. Texas: From August 1st through November 15th, 215 workers of 4500 had Mycoplasma infections in a tertiary care center. Patients suffered from abrupt onset of headache, shaking chills, and severe malaise, followed by fever and cough. Only 2 % required hospitalization. New York: From August 1st to October 26th, 48 out 189 people came down with an acute respiratory infection in an autism center in upstate New York. Six percent of the patients required hospitalization. References: http://meded.ucsd.edu/isp/1999/CAP/mycoplas.html http://www.invivogen.com/otherproducts/plasmocin.htm http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic467.htm http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/mycoplasmapneum_t.htm http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00022322.htm http://www.med.sc.edu:85/mayer/myco.htm