Impact of Disease-causing Microorganisms on Human Health Essay

SC246M3: Investigate the impact of disease-causing microorganisms on human health. GEL-3.1: Use experimental inquiry to inform problem solving.   Pneumonia Case Study In this case study, you will be exploring an infectious disease and its impact on human health. Specifically, you will identify a microbe that causes pneumonia, and outline a plan of identification. Pneumonia is a respiratory infection that impacts millions of Americans each year, and results in thousands of deaths across the country. Pneumonia can be caused by different types of microbes including fungi, viruses, or bacteria. Case Background: A 76-year-old male is admitted to the hospital complaining of shortness of breath, high fever, coughing, and chest pain. X-rays and a medical exam indicate that the patient has pneumonia, but the causative microbe is unknown.   Imagine that you work in the microbiology lab and you have been asked to help identify the cause of the patient’s pneumonia. A sputum sample is obtained and a slide is prepared for microscopic examination to identify the cause of the illness. Impact of Disease-causing Microorganisms on Human Health Essay. At this stage, microscopic examination will only determine if the causative microbe is a fungus, a virus, or a bacterium.   You have been asked to create an experimental plan to identify the type of microbe causing the patient’s pneumonia. Please complete Parts 1 and 2 below to help identify the causative agent of the pneumonia. Then, provide additional information about the impact of pneumonia on human health. Part I

1. Create a hypothesis to guide your experiment in determining if the patient’s pneumonia has been caused by a fungus, a virus, or a bacterium. You may only choose one of the three. Your hypothesis should be in an ‘if-then’ format, and should make a logical prediction of the type of microbe that caused the disease. For information on Hypothesis design, review the following video, and/or visit the Science Center.

2. Lab protocol requires examination of a sputum sample from an uninfected person to be used as a control. What is the purpose of a control sample in an experiment?
3. In the first question you constructed a hypothesis with an independent variable that can be controlled by the experimenter such as the staining or fixation process to prepare the sample slides. Now you need to discuss the observable results or the dependent variable. What would you expect to see on the slide based on your prediction? What would the causative microbe cells look like under a microscope? For example, would you see a nucleus in the microbial cell? Would it be larger or smaller than the human cells?

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Part II Write an informative 400–600-word essay about the impact of pneumonia on human health. Include the following information in your essay:

• Symptoms of pneumonia
• Vulnerable populations
• How pneumonia infections are treated
• How individuals can protect themselves from pneumonia infection

Submitting Your Assignment: Save your copy of the Assignment in a location and with a name that you will remember. Be sure to use the “Save As” option to include your first and last name in the title of the document.   When you are ready to submit it, click on the Dropbox to submit your Assignment. Minimum Submission Requirements

• This Assessment should be a Microsoft Word document with cover page, title and reference pages.
• Assignment should be double spaced, in Times New Roman 12-point font.
• At least 3 academic sources used. The Library is also a great source for academic references. Do not use sources such as Wikipedia or Ask.com.  Impact of Disease-causing Microorganisms on Human Health Essay.References should be credible and academic in nature.
• Respond to the questions in a thorough manner, providing specific examples of concepts, topics, definitions, and other elements asked for in the questions.
• Your paper should be highly organized, logical, and focused.
• Your paper must be written in Standard English and demonstrate exceptional content, organization, style, and grammar and mechanics with no spelling or punctuation errors.
• Your paper should provide a clearly established and sustained viewpoint and purpose.
• Your writing should be well ordered, logical and unified, as well as original and insightful.
• A separate page at the end of your research paper should contain a list of references, in APA format. Use your textbook, the Online Library, and the internet for research.
• Be sure to cite both in-text and reference list citations were appropriate and reference all sources.  Your sources and content should follow proper APA citation style.
• No evidence of plagiarism. Assignment should be written in your own words, and sources should be properly cited and referenced. Use of quoted material should be limited to no more than 10% of the total paper.

WHAT ARE DISEASE CAUSING MICRO-ORGANISMS?
How many times have we been told to wash our hands before sitting down at the supper table or after touching money and other dirty surfaces? By washing up we think that we’re clean and microorganism-free. We have baths, cook our food, treat our sewage and even cover our mouths when we cough and sneeze to prevent the spread of those tiny dirty particles that could make us sick. What many people don’t realize is that even after doing all of these things, we are still far from being clean. The number of microorganisms living on and in us is about ten times higher than the number of cells that make up our entire body! Before you try and scrub away those tiny organisms all over your skin, consider that most of these microorganisms are essential to our health.

Disease Causing Micro-Organisms
Disease-causing microorganisms, however, are another matter entirely. They use simple tricks to enter our bodies so they can cause disease. These germs have been studying ways to trick the human immune system for a long time because getting past the body’s defences is key for their survival. Impact of Disease-causing Microorganisms on Human Health Essay.  We may even learn a thing or two about the immune system by studying them. Who knew we could learn from something so small?

(All bolded terms are found in Glossary at end of this sheet).

WHAT IS A MICROBE?
Microbe
A microbe – another word for a microorganism – is a tiny individual living thing that is way too small to be seen by the human eye alone. The only way this tiny organism can be seen is by using a microscope. This is why microbes are often called “microscopic organisms.” These organisms are found almost everywhere you can think of here on Earth – in air, water, soil and rock, and even in plants, animals and the human body. Some microbes can live in very hot temperatures, and others can live in the freezing cold. Some need oxygen to grow and stay alive, like you or I, while others survive without it. Below is a list of some good microbes that are found in our bodies.

Microbes in the Healthy Human Body
While some microbes play an important part in our daily lives by keeping us healthy, others are nothing but bad news. These “bad-news” microbes are called disease-causing microbes and can make humans, animals and plants sick by causing infection and disease. Most microbes belong to four major groups: bacteria, viruses, protozoa or fungi. (To find out more, see the “Bacteria/Viruses/Protozoa” fact sheets). Disease-causing microbes can also be called pathogens, germs or bugs and are responsible for causing infectious diseases. They can also contribute to chronic diseases and conditions, and are now being linked with coronary artery disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer, multiple sclerosis and chronic lung disease.

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Microbe on Skin
MICROBES – THE ONES THAT MAKE US SICK
Infectious diseases caused by disease-causing microbes are responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other single cause! Scientists are working hard to find ways that will control these germs but trying to defeat them is not an easy task. Disease-causing microbes are very good at adjusting to new environments making it hard to find a way to get rid of them. Microbes can quickly develop new features that make them resistant to the drugs that were once able to kill them. This means scientists must try and stay one-step ahead, even though it is hard to do. New diseases caused by recently discovered pathogens are also being identified at an increasing rate. In the past 30 years about 30 new pathogens have been identified!

Common Diseases and Infections with their Microbial Causes
HOW MICROBES INFECT US – THE BASICS
How do we actually get infected with a disease-causing microorganism? Here’s the scoop!

Everyday we come into contact with people or animals that may be infected with disease-causing microbes. This puts us at risk of being exposed to disease.

Becoming Infected
Becoming infected depends on the link between the pathogen, the environment and the host – the host being you or I. The infection method may be thought of as six different steps that all join together to form a circular chain.  Impact of Disease-causing Microorganisms on Human Health Essay.