HSS 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cervicitis, Syphilis, Tuberculoid Leprosy

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: HSS 1100
• Professor: William Yan

Document Summary

Waxy coat on the cell wall: cannot gram stain, resistant to disinfectants, also prevents nutrient uptake causing them to be slow growers. Acid-fast stain/ziehl-neelsen stain can be used: redish stain for the cell wall and blue stain to give background contrast, must heat bacteria and stain to soften wax. Mycobacterium tuberculosis: chronic, slow progressing pulmonary infection. May never develop symptoms or may take a long time: aerobic, facultative intracellular parasite, takes 4-6 weeks to see colonies on a plate. Use lowenstein-jensen medium: microscopy of sputum smears is first line diagnostic technique, leading cause of death from a single infection. Affects 1-7 billion per year but declining. Primary tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis: first exposure by inhalation, multiply in alveoli and macrophages ingest bacilli. Late reactivation of lesions in lungs, kidneys, bones, etc. Only 5% reactivated, patients of aids is have this happen more often: can test for tb via tuberculin solution injected intradermally (mantoux test)