In this essay I am going to be describing and explaining n about how pathogenic organisms grow and spread, by explaining each stage of the chain of infection, step by step and what they involve. This representive is used to help us understand the infection progression. A circle of linked components represent what happens in the cycle of infection. The links are: infectious agent, Reservoir (where it will live), portal of exit ( how it will escape e. g contact through other humans ect ), Mode of transmission, and the portal of entry into the susceptible host.
The infectious agent is a microbial organism with the capability to cause disease. The greater the organism’s virulence (competence to grow and multiply), invasiveness (competence to enter tissue) and pathogenicity (competence to cause disease), the greater the possibility that the organism will cause an infection. Infectious agents are bacteria, virus, fungi, and parasites. Secondly the reservoir is A place inside the micro-organisms where they can thrive and reproduce. For example, microorganisms thrive in human beings, animals, and regular objects which are used and touched such as water, table tops, doorknobs, and railings.
The ‘portal of exit’ is a place of exit providing a way for a micro-organism to leave the reservoir. For example the micro-organism could leave the body through the nose by sneezing or as effectively by coughing through the mouth. Microorganisms carried away from the body by feces (when going to the toilet), may also leave the reservoir of an infected bowel. The mode of transmission is a method of transfer by which the organism moves or is then carried from one place to another.
Hands of a health care worker/ nurse ect can carry bacteria from one person to another. The portal of entry is an opening allowing the microorganism to enter the host. Portals include body orifices, mucus membranes, or breaks in the skin. Portals also result from tubes placed in body cavities, such as urinary catheters, or from punctures produced by invasive procedures such as intravenous fluid replacement. Lastly the susceptible host is the person who cannot resist a microorganism invading the body, multiplying, and resulting in infection.
The host is susceptible to the disease, lacking immunity or physical resistance to overcome the invasion by the pathogenic microorganism. To conclude the chain of infection is used to help us understand the infection progression, which is a circle of links which represent what happebsin the cycle of infection. How Bacteria Grows Bacteria grows (multiplies) in a simple process, each single celled bacterium grows until there is enough material to form two separate bacteria. The one parent bacterium then splits into two progeny bacteria.
This process is known as binary fission. The time that it takes one bacterium to collect enough material to split is known as the generation length. For example shingles Is a virus which grows. People who have never had chickenpox or shingles, or those who have a suppressed form of the VNV virus, may contract shingles after coming into physical contact with someone who has an active case of the illness. When an individual has shingles in the “blister phase,” an open blister or sore carries microscopic copies of the virus onto the person’s skin.
If that person also has openings on the skin, or in the mouth, the virus can penetrate the new host and cause an outbreak. Almost all individuals who come into contact with an active case of shingles contract chickenpox, and then retain the virus in a dormant state.
Biblography http://faculty. ccc. edu/tr-infectioncontrol/chainexplan2. html http://www. ehow. com/how-does_5232941_do-shingles-spread-others_. html http://crohn. ie/archive/primer/bacteria. html.