dysentery = (formerly known as flux or the bloodie flux) is frequent, small-volume, severe diarrhea that shows blood in the feces along with intestinal cramping and tenesmus (painful straining to pass stool). Additional symptoms frequently associated with dysentery include fever and malaise. Possible causes incl
cancer, micro-orgs, steroids......Most common bugs are Shigella, Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella. Responds to absorbable and parenteral antibiotics. Might be invasive. Treatment is metronidazole for amoebic cases, but campylobacter, shigella and salmonella respond to ciprofloxacin or macrolide antibiotics. Dysentery killed Gautama Buddha, Kings Louis VIII and IX of France, and many of the Cherokees who walked the Trail of Tears to the Arkansas Oklahoma border.

But I digress.
( if you still want to know more about diarrheaCollapse )

Which bugs (of the ones we've studied so far) cause vomiting?
Salmonella enteriditis (like cholera, also invades blood stream)
Staphylococcus aureus (endo & exo toxins)
( not for the faint of stomachCollapse )

There's this lovely bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes that is gram positive and likes to grow in dairy products. It doesn't produce any toxins or spores, it just gets in your cells and kills them. It gets started invading your body via the gut (gastroenteritis), but can take over much more of your body (invasive disease) given enough time. It is one of just a few bacteria that gets inside of your own cells (though this is standard practice for viruses) using a "zipper" mechanism. Once Listeria is inside your cells, the normal macrophage cleanup crew can't find it. It swims inside of host cells by making actin polymers! Listeria can grow at 4 degrees celcius, and is one good reason to we keep meats frozen.

Some 500 deaths/year are caused by Lysteria, and the pregnant woman and baby are most suceptible. The most common way for a pregnant mother to be exposed is by eating soft cheese. The first signs/symptoms of gastroenteritis are watery diarrhea (no blood), fever and headache, myalgias (flu-like). No vomiting. If a 1-4 week old newborn has meningitis, suspect Listeria. It can also get in the placenta during pregnancy and cause sepsis and abortion. Tx for invasive disease: ampicillin.
( and more: on Clostridium (four species including the ones that cause botulism and lockjaw)Collapse )

One kind of food poisoning and anthrax are caused by bacterium in the genus Bacillus. They are gram positive rods that make spores and have exotoxins. In lecture there was mention of its marshmallowy capsule containing d-glutamate and that being unusual. The capsule and the exotoxin are plasmid encoded, and this organism is also unique in that it has two plamids.

Bacilli are facultative aerobes--meaning they use oxygen as the final electron acceptor in their electron transport chain, and have catalase and superoxide dismutase. But they can grow in the absence of oxygen by fermenting for energy. The two medically important species of Baccilus are cereus and anthrasis.

B. cereus is ubiquitous in the soil and commonly found in low levels in raw, dried and processed foods. It takes four or more hours in food held at the wrong temperature (warm) to grow enough to make you sick. Beware of steam trays! The food poisoning it causes is similar to that caused by Staphylococcus aureus---watery nonbloody diarrhea 6-18 hours after ingesting the poison, or a faster boot out the top end, or both. Bacillus cereus likes growing in cooked white rice.
( How are bacteria unlike eukaryotes? Answer behind cut:Collapse )