MCB 2610 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
6 Sep 2016
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Discovered by robert koch in 1882, also called koch"s bacillus: won nobel prize in 1905. Acid fast stains due to mycolic acid in cell wall which makes it impenetrable to gram stain (cannot be gram stained: not gram positive or gram negative, acid-fast positive. Today, 1/3 of the world population is infected (at least 2 billion: 3 million new cases in 2013, 1. 5 million deaths, hard to grow. Tb causes direct death of greater than 50% of aids patients: tb second only to hiv/aids as the greatest killer by a single agent. Very slow grower divides every 15-20 hours. Survives inside macrophages with an incubation period of 4-12 weeks+ Forms tubercles (small hard nodules) in the lungs; disease progression can stop, but cells survive: can be dormant for a while but usually just comes back. There is a vaccine (bcg) but it"s not very effective. Antimicrobial therapy several drugs given simultaneously for 6-9 months.
