Streptococcus (Group A)
Pneumonia
Streptococcus Pneumoniae
Most bacteria come in one of three basic shapes: coccus, rod or bacillus, and spiral.
1. The coccus The cocci are spherical or oval bacteria having one of several distinct arrangements based on their planes of division.
Gram- positive
Kaiser, D. (May 2013) II. The Prokaryotic Cell: Bacteria. A. Sizes, Shapes and Arrangements of Bacteria. Retrieved from
http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/courses/bio141/lecguide/unit1/shape/shape.html
The Organism's M.O
-Attack: The common host is the human body, in which it often does not cause disease but at other times it can cause diseses in particular, pneumonia.When inside the host the organism’s primary site of pneumococcal colonization is the nasopharynx. From this site it can aspire to the lungs, eventually spread to the blood and traverse the blood-brain barrier to the meninges, once inside the blood it can cause infections throughout the body.
-Symptoms of the disease include sudden chill, fever, cough, pleuritic pain, or sputum with a red/brown rusty color.
-Transmission: Person to person through close contact via respiratory droplets.
-Accomplices? Inapparent infections and carrier states are common, and very few infected animals will ever show disease. Despite its periodic detection in large breeding colonies, no outbreaks of S. pneumoniae disease have been reported in rats in 35 years, nor in guinea pigs in 20 years, raising the possibility that previous “outbreaks” were the result of mixed infections of S. pneumoniae together with additional infectious agents.
Ballough, R. Student Presentation on Streptococcus Pneumoniae. Retrieved from http://web.uconn.edu/mcbstaff/graf/Student%20presentations/Streptococcuspneu/Spneumoniae.html
Charles, R. (2011) Technical Sheet. Streptococcus Pneumoniae. Retrieved from http://www.criver.com/files/pdfs/infectious-agents/rm_ld_r_streptococcus_pneumoniae.aspx
Victims :(
Henry, R. (August 01, 2013) Chapter 3 Infectious Diseases Related to Travel. Pneumococcus Disease. Retrieved from http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2014/chapter-3-infectious-diseases-related-to-travel/pneumococcal-disease
Level of Danger
Facklam, R. (2014) Pneumococcal Disease. Complications and Mortality Rate. Retrieved from http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/pneumococcal-disease-0
Treatment
Facklam, R. (2014) Pneumococcal Disease. Treatment and Care. Retrieved from http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/pneumococcal-disease-0