Question

In the tale of the Blind Men and the Elephant, the men each find one area of the elephant’s body and describe what they believe an elephant to be. One believed an elephant to be a large fan. It turns out he was describing the animal’s ear. One man described its trunk as a snake, another described its leg as a tree trunk. Yet another man described a rope, yet it turns out he was handling the elephant’s tail.

Let’s see if when we describe the characteristics of microorganisms completely your colleagues will provide more accurate answers!

Choose a pathogen that can invade the human body and research it in depth. Describe as many characteristics of the microscopic structure as possible, using size, shape (such as coccus), staining characteristics (such as Gram stain), or any detail other than its name. Include the transmission, etiology, and host of the disease. Try to provide a written “picture” in your colleagues’ minds without directly giving away the answer. Your description must be complete enough to rule out any other answers and avoid confusion.

The Blind Men and the Elephant
http://www.constitution.org/col/blind_men.htm

Answer 1

Pathogen - is an organism which causes disease.

1.E.coli - Escherichia coli is one of the species of Escherichia. It is a gram negative ,rod shaped ,anaerobic facultatively, coliform bacteria.It is commonly found in lower intestines of warm blooded organisms (endotherm). They come under family enterobacteriaceae. They are non spore forming organisms. Some strains are motile by peritrichous flagella and some are non motile. Capsules and fimbriae are found in some strains. Culturally they are grown on MacConkey agar at 37 degree Celsius. They survive in the outer environment for limited duration.

E.coli are present in intestines ,some of them are good ones which act as a natural bacteria for gut and helps in production of vitamin k ,but some strains cause intestinal infection.

2.Etiology of intestinal infection are:-

- Improper handling of food which includes

# No hand washing before and after eating food.

# Drinking unpasteurized milk.

# Not cleaning the utensils used for eating and cooking.

# Eating raw fruits and vegetables without washing them.

# Consuming food that are not cooked and storedproperly at right temperature .

# Consumption of foods that contain mayonnaise like fast food which are left open in air.

# Due to open defecation.

# Drinking contaminated water.

#Eating meats which are infected with bacteria.

3.Transmission is by :-

- feco oral route - from contaminated feaces to food by insects

- person to person - when a infected person touches another person or things without harnessing.

- animal to person - Person who in direct contact with animala infected with e.coli and does not wash hand before thoroughly and regularly.

4. Hosts are the organism that harbours the parasite ,provides shelter to the parasite to grow.

Host of e.coli are :-

Humans

Animals