Institute for Microbiology, Medical Faculty of Masaryk University
and St. Anna Faculty Hospital in Brno
Miroslav Votava
MICROBIOLOGY
AND MEDICINE
The 1st lecture for 2nd-year students
February 18, 2008
What is the Medical Microbiology?
Medical microbiology = complex of sciences
about microorganisms (microbes) that are of
significance in medicine
Therefore, medical microbiology deals with:
a) microbes called pathogenic which cause
diseases of man or animals
b) microbes which form so called normal
microflora of human beings and animals
c) mutual relationships between microbes and
their host
d) relations between the microbes and the
environment
Different kinds of microbiology
Actually, there are two kinds of medical microbiology:
human and veterinary one
But most often medical microbiology is considered as a
science about microbes important for human medicine
only
A part of medical microbiology which deals with the
etiology, pathogenesis and diagnostics of diseases
caused by microbes is called clinical microbiology
Besides medical microbiology, there are:
Sanitary microbiology
Environmental microbiology (of soil, water, plants etc.)
Food microbiology
Other kinds of industrial microbiology
Division of microbiology
•
•
•
•
bacteria
micromycetes (moulds & yeasts)
(algae)
parasites
–
–
–
•
protozoa
helminths
arthropods
viruses
bacteriology
mycology
(algology)
parasitology
protozoology
helminthology
entomology
virology
general microbiology × special microbiology
What should we know about the
microbe X ? – I
1. Classification, morphology, structure
Is it a bacterium, a yeast, or a protozoon?
Bacterium: is it G+, G-, or does it stain differently?
Is it a coccus, rod, filament, spiral?
How are they arranged? In pairs, chains, clumps,
palisades?
Do they produce spores, capsules, granules?
2. Physiology, biochemistry, genetics, tenacity
Is it an anaerobe?
Has it got any important biochemical property?
Is it interesting from the point of genetics?
Is it tenacious, or delicate?
What should we know about the
microbe X ? – II
3. Antigenic structure
Does the microbe exist in one or several antigenic
types?
4. Pathogenicity
Which disease or syndromes does it cause?
What are their Latin names?
5. Pathogenesis
What is the port of entry, dissemination through the
body, excretion from it?
How do the symptoms develop?
What are the main factors of pathogenicity?
6. Immunity
Does it form at all?
Transient, or lifelong? Humoral, or cellular one?
What should we know about the
microbe X ? – III
7. Epidemiology
Source of infection: man, animal, environment?
Way of transmission?
8. Prevention or prophylaxis
Do we vaccinate, or do we immunize passively?
Type of vaccine: attenuated, inactivated,
toxoid?
9. Therapy
What is the drug of choice?
If an antibiotic, which one?
What should we know about the
microbe X ? – IV
10. Laboratory diagnostics
Detection of the microbe – direct or indirect one?
If the direct one, what sample is taken from
the patient?
How is it examined?
If by culture, is a special medium needed?
How is the isolated strain identified?
If the indirect one, is a special serologic reaction
needed?
What is considered to be the positive result?
Anniversaries 2008 – I
605 1403 Venice, the 1st hospital for infect. diseases
340 1668 Antony van Leeuwenhoek began with
microscopy
190 1818 † Ignaz Semmelweis (hand disinfection)
185 1823 † Edward Jenner (smallpox vaccination)
170 1836 Schönlein: a mould in hair during favus
165 1843 * Robert Koch (agents of TBC and cholera)
155 1853 * Hans Christian Gram (Gram stain)
* Émile Roux (diphtheria antitoxin)
125 1883 Fehleisen: streptococci (erysipelas)
110 1898 Shiga: shigellae, agents of dysentery
Beijerinck: term „virus“
Anniversaries 2008 – II
105 1903 Metchnikoff & Roux: syphilis → monkey
Negri: Negri bodies in brain of rabid dogs
Wright: opsonin (vital for phagocytosis)
100 1908 Mantoux: skin (tuberculine) tests for TBC
Ehrlich & Metchnikoff: Nobel Prize for
works on immunity
95 1913 Prowazek & Rocha da Lima: rickettsiae
85 1923 Ramon: diphtheria anatoxin (toxoid)
Dept. of Microbiology in St. Anna Hospital
founded
80 1928 Fleming: penicillin discovered
Nicolle: Nobel Prize for typhus fever
Anniversaries 2008 – III
75 1933 Smith, Andrewes & Laidlow: influenza virus
isolated on ferrets
60 1948 Müller: Nobel Prize for discovery of DDT
oxytetracyclin discovered
growing of viruses on cell cultures began
55 1953 Rowe et al.: adenoviruses isolated
Salk: inactivated poliovaccine
60 1958 Beadle et al.: Nobel Prize for works on
bacterial genetics
45 1963 Blumberg: AuAg discovered (now HBsAg)
15 1993 Nobel Prize for PCR and for introns
Anniversaries 2009 – I
335 1674 Protozoa first seen by van Leeuwenhoek
260 1749 * Edward Jenner, founder of vaccination
against smallpox
145 1864 Pasteur discovered that wine is spoiled by
microbes
130 1879 Neisser discovered gonococci
125 1884 Löffler & Klebs: agent of diphtheria
Eberth & Gaffky: agent of typhoid fever
Metchnikoff described phagocytosis
Gram described „Gram staining“
115 1894 Kitasato & Yersin: agent of plague
Anniversaries 2009 – II
90 1919 Bordet: Nobel prize for discovery of
BWR, complement, agent of pertussis
70 1939 Domagk: effect of sulphonamides on
gonococci
65 1944 Waksman discovered streptomycin
55 1954 Salk: inactivated vaccine against polio
Enders et al. grew poliovirus on cell culture
20 1989 Bishop & Varmus: Nobel prize for discovery
of cell origin of retroviral oncogenes
Recommended teaching material
1) Basic textbook
Greenwood et al.: Medical Microbiology,
17th Ed., 2007
Alternatives
Murray et al.: Medical Microbiology
Mims et al.: Medical Microbiology
2) Lecture notes
3) List of questions
4) Protocols from practical exercises
Additional reading material
Paul de Kruif: Microbe Hunters
Could you kindly supply me with some
other work in connection with microbes?
Please mail me the name of the author and
of the book at:
mvotava@med.muni.cz
Thank you for your attention