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Hello, everyone. My name
is Dr. Sarah Fouch.
And within this talk we will
be considering
Bacillus anthracis.
We will think about
the condition
that this organism is associated
with and also the ways
that patients can
contract this condition.
We will also think about
the virulence factors that
Bacillus anthracis can produce
that make it a
successful pathogen.
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Now Bacillus anthracis is
an advisory committee on
dangerous pathogens
Group 3 organism.
And you may often hear
this referred to as ACDP.
Now this looks at how
dangerous an organism is,
and a Group 3 organisms
means that it has
the ability to cause
severe human disease and
present a serious hazard
which may spread.
So these are either aerobic
or facultatively
anaerobic organisms.
And when we think
about facultatively
anaerobic organisms,
this means that
they can survive in
the presence or
absence of oxygen.
Now they have the
ability to form spores.
And we will talk about
virulence factors a little
bit more later in this talk.
But by far this is one of
the most important
virulence factors
that Bacillus anthracis possess.
So they may not cause as
many common infections as
some of the other
organisms we've
considered in this
series of recordings,
but they are problematic
because they can form
spores which are very
hardy and they're
able to survive in
harsh environments sometimes
for up to around 20 years.
Now one of the symptoms
associated with
Bacillus anthracis is
a charcoal carbuncle.
And when we see pictures of
it we can understand why,
and when we look at
that area of infection,
the center of the area of
infection is very dark,
and that's because there is
a lot of necrosis occurring.
