Infectious pathogen for Essay question in Microbiology exam.

Hiya guys.I am wondering if any of ye would be able to help.We were given the choice of writing an essay on a microbial pathogen.Does anybody have any ideas for a pathogen thats not too common but is interesting to write about?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

bleg

clostridium difficile or TB.

next!

Tree

Yersinia pestis, aka the plague

DrIndy

anthrax - its got a pretty interesting history.

TB is very interesting but a very complex bug. HIV is complex but interesting too.

There are loads of interesting tropical bugs like yaws and leishmaniasis

Schlemm

Camphylobacter is interesting from the point of view of antimicrobial resistance.

Traumadoc

Legionella, interesting past, I used to see a lot of cases coming fromworking with potting mix. and any of the prion illnesses

low

Cryptosporidium, actually I don't know if you can call that an infectious pathogen.

DrIndy

low wrote: »

Cryptosporidium, actually I don't know if you can call that an infectious pathogen.

its infectious. so it counts - but only really interesting in HIV patients - otherwise you just get diaorrhea from it......

Legionella is also a good one - interesting history as well as microbiology.

It helps us to help you if you can give a slant in what you want to write about....... there are complex pathogens and then there are those with an interesting background as to why they are pathogens. On the other hand you may want a simple one which has a good circumscribed base around it for the essay so it can be packaged off without too much writing. TB is a very complex disease and you could write a book about it (and there are textbooks solely dedicated to it!)

Sorry for the delay.I misinterpreted the question.It is about the epidemiology of a infectious pathogen.Thinking I will choose smallpox and how it affected the political and social structure of the Incas.

DrIndy

cholera is another one which had huge social implications.

tallaght01

HIV epidemiology is one of the most fascinating aspects of medicine, to my mind.

It affects about 60 million people worldwide. It's got interesting pathogenesis. It has decimated the most economically acive generation in many poor countries, exacerbating their social/economic problems.

You can talk about prostitution, civil war and gang rape. You can talk about gender inequality. You can talk about the homosexual community. You can talk about the aggressive public health measures int he 80s/early 90s. You can talk about how it affects the epidemiology of other infectious agents (eg the reason TB is such a killer in Africa is because of the susceptibility of HIV patients to TB).

I'm hoping to make a career out of it, so I may be biased. But my reading on the subject brings me from basic science journals, to stories of truck drivers in India bringing it home to their wives from brothels, to sex prisoners in Sierra Leon, to mining communities in Johannesburg.

A simpler essay to write would be the epidemiology of any of the diarrhoea bugs that kill kiddies all over sub saharan africa daily.

nursetinkerbell

Heya! I'd go for Legionella, More interesting to me!!!!!!!!!!!

tallaght01

tallaght01 wrote: »

HIV epidemiology is one of the most fascinating aspects of medicine, to my mind.

It affects about 60 million people worldwide. It's got interesting pathogenesis. It has decimated the most economically acive generation in many poor countries, exacerbating their social/economic problems.

You can talk about prostitution, civil war and gang rape. You can talk about gender inequality. You can talk about the homosexual community. You can talk about the aggressive public health measures int he 80s/early 90s. You can talk about how it affects the epidemiology of other infectious agents (eg the reason TB is such a killer in Africa is because of the susceptibility of HIV patients to TB).

I'm hoping to make a career out of it, so I may be biased. But my reading on the subject brings me from basic science journals, to stories of truck drivers in India bringing it home to their wives from brothels, to sex prisoners in Sierra Leon, to mining communities in Johannesburg.

A simpler essay to write would be the epidemiology of any of the diarrhoea bugs that kill kiddies all over sub saharan africa daily.

Yeah.I know HIV is really interestin but there is nearly too much.I might write out the smallpox and HIV one and see which sounds better.

Tree

Remmergence of polio. and emergence of xdr tb.

Any good resources on HIV epidemiology?I can only seem to find approppriate info via answers.com
Wanna have information a wee bit more obscure than most.

DrIndy

there's a lot of data and sites out there, I enclose a few from US, australia and England. One of the interesting facts to emerge is that the likeliest source of the strain that is predominant in the US, Europe and Japan originated from one man in Haiti in the 1960's.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3_supp/levin.htm
http://www.nchecr.unsw.edu.au/
http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/hiv_and_sti/hiv/epidemiology/epidemiology.htm

Tree

have a wander around the wmmr or is it the mmwr. the weekly report the cdc do on current disease. you should find their articles and references useful.