Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Carbapenem antibiotics are the strongest type and are used as a last resort.  Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is becoming a major concern within the medical community due to their resistance to the strongest antibiotics.  This is a problem because drug-resistance bacterias have been a problem for more than a decade with no way to combat them.  There recently has been a case of a man having this superbug-like bacteria in Virginia.  doctors tried to stop the infection by giving the man different antibiotics and finally the strongest last-resort pill was given and it did nothing.  After three months, the man died.  The story does not end there, the man is dead, but not the bacteria.  The bacteria continues to thrive in the environment and starts infecting other people.

This is extremely frightening for people that out there is a bacteria that can not be fought against.  Usually the bacteria is in hospitals and nursing homes.  Currently hundreds of institutions are being hit.  CRE is a general term used to describe the bacteria that have mutated to resist the antibiotics.  For example, over the summer, there was a strain of Klebsiella pneimoniae that was a CRE outside of Washington D.C. at a health center.  Seven people died after contracting this mutated strain.  There are other cases like this showing up throughout the country with worse or better death outcomes.  The different bacteria could range from intestinal and urinary tract infections to pneumonia.  Death rates for CRE infected are about 40%.  CRE is not only gaining popularity and fear, but is growing in strength.  

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/29/bacteria-deadly-hospital-infection/1727667/?csp=fbfanpage

http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cre/index.html

Trichinella

Trichinella is a parasitic roundworm that causes trichinosis, or trichinellosis and belongs to the Nematoda phylum.  1835 was the first recognition of the genus in larval stage.  As a larvae, it lives in skeletal muscle tissue and the adult worm lives in the epithelium tissue.  As this matures, it turns into a intramulticellular parasite.  

Domestic and wild animals and humans will contract this parasite.  This parasite is the smallest nematode, but the largest of intracellular parasites.  The normal route of infection is normally oral ingestion.  When one eats raw or undercooked meat that is infected with the larvae that is how one becomes infected.  Usually infection occurs in wild carnivorous or omnivorous animals such as bears, domestic pics, or wild boars.  Symptoms vary, but usually the first symptoms would be abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, fever, nausea, and vomiting.  Muscle pain, headaches, fevers, and chills would follow after the first sign.  Severe cases may lead to one's death.  After a few months, for mild to moderate cases, symptoms should subside.  If one does ingest infected meat, then prescription drugs should be taken.  Worldwide, there is 10,000 estimates cases of trichinellosis that occurs every year.  Cook your pork.

Trichinellosis is acquired by ingesting meat containing cysts (encysted larvae)  of Trichinella. After exposure to gastric acid and pepsin, the larvae are released  from the cysts and invade the small bowel mucosa where they develop into adult worms  (female 2.2 mm in length, males 1.2 mm; life span in the small bowel: 4 weeks). After 1 week, the females release larvae  that migrate to the striated muscles where they encyst . Trichinella pseudospiralis, however, does not encyst. Encystment is completed in 4 to 5 weeks and the encysted larvae may remain viable for several years. Ingestion of the encysted larvae perpetuates the cycle. Rats and rodents are primarily responsible for maintaining the endemicity of this infection. Carnivorous/omnivorous animals, such as pigs or bears, feed on infected rodents or meat from other animals. Different animal hosts are implicated in the life cycle of the different species ofTrichinella. Humans are accidentally infected when eating improperly processed meat of these carnivorous animals (or eating food contaminated with such meat). http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/biology.html

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/