What is bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae?

What is bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae?

Streptococcus pneumoniae are lancet-shaped, gram-positive, facultative anaerobic bacteria with more than 100 known serotypes. Most S. pneumoniae serotypes can cause disease, but only a minority of serotypes produce the majority of pneumococcal infections.

What diseases are caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae?

What is pneumococcal disease?

• Lungs (pneumonia)
• Ears (otitis)
• Sinuses (sinusitis)
• Brain and spinal cord tissue (meningitis)
• Blood (bacteremia)

What is Gram stain of Streptococcus pneumoniae?

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a gram-positive, catalase-negative, facultatively anaerobic organism that grows as a single coccus, as diplococci often identifiable because of their lancet shape, and in chains of variable length. Growth is enhanced in 5% carbon dioxide or anaerobic conditions.

Is Streptococcus pneumoniae harmful or helpful?

It is a commensal organism in the human respiratory tract, meaning that it benefits from the human body, without harming it. However, infection by pneumococcus may be dangerous, causing not only pneumonia, but also bronchitis, otitis media, septicemia, and meningitis.

What are the symptoms of Streptococcus?

Symptoms

• Throat pain that usually comes on quickly.
• Painful swallowing.
• Red and swollen tonsils, sometimes with white patches or streaks of pus.
• Tiny red spots on the area at the back of the roof of the mouth (soft or hard palate)
• Swollen, tender lymph nodes in your neck.
• Fever.
• Headache.
• Rash.

How do you get streptococcus pneumonia?

Streptococcus pneumoniae is spread from person to person by the inhalation of respiratory droplets (e.g. coughing, sneezing) from an infected person. It is not known why certain individuals develop invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae disease while others do not.

How do you get Streptococcus pneumonia?

What does pneumococcus look like?

Streptococcus pneumoniae cells are Gram-positive, lancet-shaped cocci (elongated cocci with a slightly pointed outer curvature). Usually, they are seen as pairs of cocci (diplococci), but they may also occur singly and in short chains. When cultured on blood agar, they are alpha hemolytic.

What is the best treatment for Streptococcus pneumoniae?

Vancomycin is frequently the preferred drug for the treatment of severe penicillin-resistant pneumococcal infections outside the CNS and for patients with an IgE-type allergy to penicillin.

What is gram-positive Streptococcus?

Streptococci are gram-positive aerobic organisms that cause many disorders, including pharyngitis, pneumonia, wound and skin infections, sepsis, and endocarditis. Symptoms vary with the organ infected. Sequelae of infections due to group A beta-hemolytic streptococci may include rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis.

What is a gram-positive infection?

Reference. Comments. Gram Positive infections–Infections caused by staphylococci, streptococci, and other gram-positive organisms. It is the drug of choice for infections due to methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRSA) and multi-drug resistant strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae.