Blood-Borne Pathogens While there are multiple pathogenic organisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other more exotic organisms such as prions, that could potentially be transmitted from an infected person to uninfected people through blood contact, the term Blood-Borne Pathogens is most commonly used to refer to the “Big 3,” by which is meant Hepatitis B …
Trichophyton Trichophyton is the fancy scientific name for a group of fungi that are very familiar to most people even if they don’t recognize the clinical name. Typical encounters with Trichophyton include, but are not necessarily limited to: athlete’s foot, jock itch, nail fungus, ringworm, and similar afflictions, all of which are quite common amongst …
Coronavirus refers to a relatively small group of viruses that were first identified in the 1960s from the respiratory tracts of humans. Over the course of time, it was recognized that coronavirus infection is quite common in humans, as well as in some other animals, although those viruses do not always have the ability to …
As is often the case with microorganisms, and the diseases or infections they can cause, it is important to be specific in our language and our understanding to avoid making embarrassing, or even dangerous, errors in judgment and assumption. This can be particularly true in the case of the herpes viruses, which have a rather …
“Influenza” is a generic term that describes a large host of variant viruses that are closely related. These viruses are not differentiated, as bacteria are, by genus and species but rather through a complex naming process that first distinguishes between the three major types of influenza viruses, either A, B, or C, and then the …
Streptococcus pyogenes refers to a specific genus and species pair which shares many common characteristics with a wide range of microorganisms in the same genus. For sake of convenience at the expense of scientific specificity, we will refer to Streptococcus pyogenes from here on out simply as strep, although this is understood to apply only …
Staphylococcus is the genus name of a very large group of closely related bacteria, some of which are commonly found on and in the human body, and some of these bacteria are notorious causes of infection and disease. Among the most common of these bacteria that are capable of causing disease are Staphylococcus aureus and …
Shigella is a genus group of bacteria that contains four species, S. dysenteriae, S. flexneri, S. boydii, and S. sonnei. While these are frequently referred to as “species,” it is probably more scientifically correct to refer to them as biotypes of Escherichia, but because of the important medical differences between infections with Shigella versus most …
Serratia is the genus name of a group of relatively common bacteria, the most common of which is Serratia marcescens. There are other species within the genus, a few of which have on rare occasion caused disease in humans, but the vast majority of infections with the Serratia occur with Serratia marcescens, and from this …
Pseudomonas is the genus name of a large group of bacteria, some of which can infect and sicken humans. The number of bacteria assigned to Pseudomonas has declined in recent years as the advent and widespread adoption of genetic testing of bacteria has caused many former members of Pseudomonas to be moved to existing, or …