Diagnosis of an infected patient Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Diagnosis of an infected patient - Essay Example The Bacillus is a very resilient bacterium because it can produces spores (actually, oval endospores which are not true spores) which remain dormant over long periods of time and then re-activated whenever the right environmental conditions are present for it to reproduce again. Its spores can theoretically be dormant for many years in the soil but can still infect after a lapse of several decades. Bacillus can be either aerobic (oxygen-reliant) or facultative anaerobic (having ability to be aerobic or not). It is gram-positive when stained although some Bacillus are gram-negative too. Escherichia differs from Bacillus in that it is non-spore forming, gram-negative when it is stained, and it is facultatively anaerobic although it is like Bacillus in being rod-shaped also in form when viewed under the microscope. Many strains under the Escherichia species are known human pathogens which cause many urinary tract infections (UTI) as well as common intestinal ailments like diarrhea and dysentery. However, some strains are beneficial and known also by the alternative living arrangement called commensal which is a relationship between two kinds of organisms where one organism benefits without necessarily harming the other organism. Mycoplasma is the smallest known bacteria and do not have a cell wall which allows it to be flexible enough and take many different shapes, depending on its environment. It is also resistant to most medicinal drugs which specifically target cell walls synthesis like penicillin or antibiotics as its lack of a wall prevents a precise targeting mechanism for a drug to work on it. It is considered as one of the smallest living cells ever discovered and many of its strains are cause of ailments as it is pathogenic and parasitic. Mycoplasma is anaerobic (survives without oxygen) and it is gram-positive when stained. It was mistakenly thought to be a fungus when first