Genus & Specefic Epithet[1].txt

B.burgdorferi, causes Lyme disease. Vectored into humans by the bite of the deer tick, Ixodes scapularis.

T.pallidum, causes syphilis, a sexually-transmitted disease

C.jejeuni, often found in cattle, pig, chicken intestines and contaminating meat products. Probably as common a cause of enteritis ("food poisoning") as Salmonella

H.pylori, infection with this organism is a necessary prerequisite for a gastric ulcer. So ulcers are now treated with a course of antibiotics.

L.pneumophila, discovered when it sickened 182, killed 26 in a mysterious pneumonia outbreak at a 1976 American Legionnaire's convention in Philadelphia. Now known to be common in streams as well as sometimes in the water lines of airconditioning systems. Responsible for a significant number of pneumonia cases in nursing homes.

N.gonorrheae, causea of gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease; often results in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) which can scar Fallopian tubes and cause sterility; neonatal infections from mother at birth are possible

N.meninigitidis, the 'meningococcus', causes meningococcal meningitis

Various 'pseudomonads', very common in water and soil, resistant to many antibiotics and disinfectants (sometimes grows in quaternary-ammonium compound disinfectants!), urinary tract infections (UTIs), wound infections, very dangerous for burn patients (no flowers in the burn ward!), serious pneumonia in people with with cystic fibrosis (slime-producing pseudomonads grow in the sticky mucus in thier lungs), often produces green or blue pigments (green or blue pus) and smells like Concord grapes.

E.aerogenes

E.coli, the prokaryotic 'guinea pig'. Very well characterized, used in pioneering studies of genetics, some strains cause traveler's diarrhea, and strain O157:H7 is pathogenic (hemolytic uremic syndrome, has killed people, esp. children).

K.pneumoniae, cause of pneummonia in elderly and immunocompromised.

P.vulgaris, highly motile

S.typhi, cause of thyhoid fever, a big killer before good sanitation practices (e.g. municipal treatment of sewage and drinking water). Some people are asymptomatic carriers of S.typhi ('typhoid Mary', Mary Mallon, a domestic cook, probably killed several dozen people in the northeastern U.S. in 1890s/1900s before being permanetly increased).

S.enteritidis, cause of salmonellosis a.k.a. 'food poisoning', very common

No examples species given. Shigella resemebles E.coli except it almost invariably produces a varitey of enterotoxins.

Y.pestis, vectores into humans by bites of infected fleas, causes plague. Bubonic plague (lymphatic infection) has an untreated mortality rate of 50-75%, pneumonic plague nearly always kills. Y.pestis was the probable cause of the 1347-1350 "Black Death", an epidemic that killed about one-third of the population of Europe.

V.cholerae, cause of cholera, produces powerful enterotoxin that inhibits water reabsorption by the large intestine, prodigious quantities of watery diarrhea, death by dehydration in hours, treatment is supportive (fluid/glucose/electrolytes I.V.), but, sadly, most epidemics occurs in very poor nations where even this elementry treatment is unavailable.

H.influenza, so-called as it only grows on blood-based media in the laboratory, and was discovered and mis-identified as the cause of the 1890 influenza pandemic. Found in nasopharynx of ~75% of people; virulent strains cause meningitis, earache, epliglottitis and pneumonia. Immunization against this bacterium has been part of the normal childhood series (Hib vaccine) since 1985.

B.fragilis, strict anaerobe, very common in human colon, cause of peritonitis from penetrating abdnormal wound (e.g. gun-shot or shell-fragment wound) or ruptured appendix.