Lecture PowerPoint to accompany

Foundations in
Microbiology
Sixth Edition

Talaro
Chapter 13
Microbe-Human
Interactions: Infection
and Disease
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Contact, Colonization, Infection, Disease
• Microbes that engage in mutual or commensal
associations - normal (resident) flora,
indigenous flora, microbiota
• Infection- a condition in which pathogenic
microbes penetrate host defenses, enter tissues
and multiply
• Disease – any deviation from health, disruption
of a tissue or organ
• Caused by microbes or their products –
infectious disease
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 Resident Flora
• Includes bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses and
arthropods
• Most areas of the body in contact with the outside
environment harbor resident microbes; large
intestine has the highest numbers of bacteria.
• Internal organs and tissues and fluids are microbe-
free.
• Bacterial flora benefit host by preventing
overgrowth of harmful microbes – microbial
antagonism.
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 Initial Colonization of the Newborn
• Uterus and contents are normally sterile and
remain so until just before birth.
• Breaking of fetal membrane exposes the
infant; all subsequent handling and feeding
continue to introduce what will be normal
flora.

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 Major Factors in the Development of
an Infection
• True pathogens – capable of causing disease in
healthy persons with normal immune defenses
– influenza virus, plague bacillus, malarial
protozoan
• Opportunistic pathogens – cause disease when
the host’s defenses are compromised or when they
grow in part of the body that is not natural to them
– Pseudomonas sp & Candida albicans
• Severity of the disease depends on the virulence
of the pathogen; characteristic or structure that
contributes to the ability of a microbe to cause
disease is a virulence factor. 7
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Course of infection

Portals of entry – characteristic route a microbe follows

to enter the tissues of the body
– skin - nicks, abrasions, punctures, incisions
– gastrointestinal tract – food, drink, and other ingested
materials
– respiratory tract – oral and nasal cavities
– urogenital tract – sexual, displaced organisms
– transplacental
• Exogenous agents originate from source outside the
body.
• Endogenous agents already exist on or in the body
(normal flora).
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Requirement for an Infectious Dose (ID)
• Minimum number of microbes required for
infection to proceed
• Microbes with small IDs have greater
virulence.
• Lack of ID will not result in infection.

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 Attaching to the Host
• Adhesion – microbes gain a stable foothold at the
portal of entry; dependent on binding between
specific molecules on host and pathogen
– fimbrae
– flagella
– adhesive slimes or capsules
– cilia
– suckers
– hooks
– barbs

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 Surviving Host Defenses
• Initial response of host defenses comes from
phagocytes.
• Antiphagocytic factors – used to avoid
phagocytosis
• Species of Staphylococcus and Streptococcus
produce leukocidins, toxic to white blood cells.
• Slime layer or capsule – makes phagocytosis
difficult
• Ability to survive intracellular phagocytosis
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 Causing Disease
• Virulence factors – traits used to invade and
establish themselves in the host, also determine
the degree of tissue damage that occurs – severity
of disease
• Exoenzymes – digest epithelial tissues and permit
invasion of pathogens
• Toxigenicity – capacity to produce toxins at the
site of multiplication
– endotoxins – lipid A of LPS of Gram-negative bacteria
– exotoxins – proteins secreted by Gram-positive and
Gram-negative bacteria
• Antiphagocytic factors – help them to kill or avoid
phagocytes; remain an irritant to host defenses
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 The Process of Infection and Disease
• 4 distinct stages of clinical infections:
– incubation period - time from initial contact with the
infectious agent to the appearance of first symptoms;
agent is multiplying but damage is insufficient to cause
symptoms; several hours to several years
– prodromal stage – vague feelings of discomfort;
nonspecific complaints
– period of invasion – multiplies at high levels, becomes
well established; more specific signs and symptoms
– convalescent period – as person begins to respond to
the infection, symptoms decline
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 Establishment, Spread, and Pathologic
Effects
Patterns of infection:
• Localized infection– microbes enters body and
remains confined to a specific tissue
• Systemic infection– infection spreads to several
sites and tissue fluids usually in the bloodstream
• Focal infection– when infectious agent breaks
loose from a local infection and is carried to other
tissues

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 Patterns of Infection
• Mixed infection – several microbes grow
simultaneously at the infection site -
polymicrobial
• Primary infection – initial infection
• Secondary infection – another infection by a
different microbe
• Acute infection – comes on rapidly, with
severe but short-lived effects
• Chronic infections –progress and persist over
a long period of time
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 Signs and Symptoms
• Sign – objective evidence of disease as
noted by an observer
– fever, septicemia, chest sounds, rash,
leukocytosis, antibodies
• Symptom – subjective evidence of disease
as sensed by the patient
– chills, pain, ache, nausea, itching, headache.
fatigue

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Signs and Symptoms of Inflammation
• Earliest symptoms of disease as a result of
the activation of the body defenses
– fever, pain, soreness, swelling
• Signs of inflammation:
– edema - accumulation of fluid,
– granulomas and abscesses – walled-off
collections of inflammatory cells and microbes
– lymphadenitis – swollen lymph nodes

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 Signs of Infection in the Blood
• Changes in the number of circulating white
blood cells
– leukocytosis – increase in white blood cells
– leukopenia – decrease in white blood cells
– septicemia – microorganisms are multiplying in
the blood and present in large numbers
• bacteremia – small numbers of bacteria present in
blood not necessarily multiplying
• viremia – small number of viruses present not
necessarily multiplying

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 Infections That Go Unnoticed
• Asymptomatic (subclinical) infections –
although infected, the host doesn’t show
any signs of disease
• Inapparent infection, so person doesn’t seek
medical attention

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 Portals of Exit
• Pathogens depart by a specific avenue;
greatly influences the dissemination of
infection
– respiratory – mucus, sputum, nasal drainage,
saliva
– skin scales
– fecal exit
– urogenital tract
– removal of blood

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 Persistence of Microbes and
Pathologic Conditions
• Apparent recovery of host does not always mean the
microbe has been removed.
• Latency – after the initial symptoms in certain chronic
diseases, the microbe can periodically become active
and produce a recurrent disease; person may or may
not shed it during the latent stage
• Chronic carrier – person with a latent infection who
sheds the infectious agent
• Sequelae – long-term or permanent damage to tissues
or organs
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 Reservoirs: Where Pathogens Persist
• Reservoir – primary habitat of pathogen in
the natural world
– human or animal carrier, soil, water, plants
• Source – individual or object from which
an infection is actually acquired

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 Living Reservoirs
• Carrier – an individual who inconspicuously
shelters a pathogen and spreads it to others; may
or may not have experienced disease due to the
microbe
• Asymptomatic carrier –
– incubation carriers – spread the infectious agent
during the incubation period
– convalescent carriers – recuperating without
symptoms
– chronic carrier – individual who shelters the
infectious agent for a long period
• Passive carrier – contaminated healthcare
provider picks up pathogens and transfers them to
other patients
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 Animals as Reservoirs and Sources
• A live animal (other than human) that transmits an
infectious agent from one host to another is called
a vector.
• Majority of vectors are arthropods – fleas,
mosquitoes, flies, and ticks
• Some larger animals can also spread infection –
mammals, birds, lower vertebrates.
• Biological vectors – actively participate in a
pathogen’s life cycle
• Mechanical vector – not necessary to the life
cycle of an infectious agent and merely transports
it without being infected
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• An infection indigenous to animals but
naturally transmissible to humans is a
zoonosis.
• Humans don’t transmit the disease to others.
• At least 150 zoonoses exist worldwide;
make up 70% of all new emerging diseases
worldwide.
• Impossible to eradicate the disease without
eradicating the animal reservoir
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 Nonliving Reservoirs
• Soil, water, and air

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 Acquisition and Transmission of
Infectious Agents
• Communicable disease – when an infected host
can transmit the infectious agent to another host
and establish infection in that host
• Highly communicable disease is contagious.
• Non-communicable infectious disease does not
arise through transmission from host to host.
– occurs primarily when a compromised person is
invaded by his or her own normal microflora
– contact with organism in natural, non-living reservoir

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 Patterns of Transmission
• Direct contact – physical contact or fine
aerosol droplets
• Indirect contact – passes from infected host
to intermediate conveyor and then to
another host
– vehicle – inanimate material, food, water,
biological products, fomites
– airborne – droplet nuclei, aerosols

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 Nosocomial Infections
• Diseases that are acquired or developed during a
hospital stay
• From surgical procedures, equipment, personnel, and
exposure to drug-resistant microorganisms
• More than 1/3rd of nosocomial infections could be
prevented.
• 2 to 4 million cases/year in U.S. with approximately
90,000 deaths
• Most commonly involve urinary tract, respiratory tract,
and surgical incisions
• Most common organisms involved: Gram-negative
intestinal flora
– E. coli, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus
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 Universal Blood and Body Fluid
Precautions
• Stringent measures to prevent the spread of
nosocomial infections from patient to
patient, from patient to worker, and from
worker to patient – universal precautions
• Based on the assumption that all patient
specimens could harbor infectious agents,
so must be treated with the same degree of
care
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 Epidemiology
• The study of the frequency and distribution of
disease and health-related factors in human
populations
• Surveillance –collecting, analyzing, and reporting
data on rates of occurrence, mortality, morbidity
and transmission of infections
• Reportable, notifiable diseases must be reported to
authorities.

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• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) in Atlanta, GA – principal
government agency responsible for keeping
track of infectious diseases nationwide
• http://www.cdc.gov

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 Frequency of Cases
• Prevalence – total number of existing cases
with respect to the entire population usually
represented by a percentage of the
population
• Incidence – measures the number of new
cases over a certain time period, as
compared with the general healthy
population

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• Mortality rate – the total number of deaths
in a population due to a certain disease
• Morbidity rate – number of people
afflicted with a certain disease

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• Endemic – disease that exhibits a relatively
steady frequency over a long period of time
in a particular geographic locale
• Sporadic – when occasional cases are
reported at irregular intervals
• Epidemic – when prevalence of a disease is
increasing beyond what is expected
• Pandemic – epidemic across continents

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 Koch’s Postulates
Determining the causative or etiologic agent of
infectious disease:
• Find evidence of a particular microbe in every
case of a disease.
• Isolate that microbe from an infected subject and
cultivate it artificially in the laboratory.
• Inoculate a susceptible healthy subject with the
laboratory isolate and observe the resultant
disease.
• Reisolate the agent from this subject.

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