Microbiology Lecture 8

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Medical Microbiology

Normal microbiota

  • Many parts of body are axenic
  • Indigenous microbiota
  • Acquisition – mostly at birth
  • Resident – mostly commensal
  • Transient – same location as resident members but cannot persist
  • Opportunistic pathogens

Opportunistic pathogens

3 main conditions:

  • Immunosuppression
  • Alteration in the indigenous microbiota
  • Presence of normal microbiota organism in unusual host site

Exposure to microbes

Reservoirs of infectious disease:

Animal reservoirs – Zoonoses

  • Anthrax
  • Bubonic plague
  • Lyme disease
  • Rabies

Human carriers

  • Active disease
  • Asymptomatic 
  • Healthy carriers – Typhoid Mary

Nonliving reservoirs

  • Soil
  • Water
  • Food

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