HSS 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Mesophile, Electron Microscope, Peptidoglycan

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: HSS 1100
• Professor: William Yan

Document Summary

Penicillin is no longer used to treat this pathogen due to resistance. Long term usage doesn"t always lead to resistance (i. e. : s. pyogenes) Conditions were not sterile and wounds were heavily infected by bacterial pathogens. In developed countries, at least 80% of all strains of staphylococcus aureus are highly resistant to penicillin, even though it has been the choice of treatment. Penicillin is more useful against gram-positive bacteria compared to gram-negative bacteria. Antibiotics are so useful and so commonly used because they are selective in where and how it acts. Antibiotics can usually act on receptors or targets found only on bacteria. Antibiotics target important cell structures or interfere with key processes that the bacteria use to survive. In order to treat the pathogen, we need to know what organism is causing the infection, where the infection is happening, and if there are any allergies (i. e. : to penicillin)