Case 1a: The Wounded Hiker Over the weekend, Sam and his friends went for a day

Question

Case 1a: The Wounded Hiker Over the weekend, Sam and his friends went for a day hiking trip up in the mountains near an old mine shaft. During the course of their hike, Sam accidentally cut his foot on an old piece of mining equipment. The metal shard cut right through his shoe! His friends made him stop and clean the wound with some supplies they had in a first aid kit. However, because Sam's shoe was ripped, he proceeded to put on Teva sandals for the remainder of the hike. The group returned to their cars, and Sam had noticed that his feet were covered entirely with dirt from the hike. A few days later, Sam began noticing that he had fever, headache, and sore jaw that was prone to cramping. Concerned, Sam went to the emergency room where you work.

Explanation / Answer

The microbe which caused sam’s illness is clostridium tetani

This is mostly found in soil,animal feaces and dust

Isolation and labaratory testing:

Diagnosis is mainly based on clinical setting

1.Gram staining: chlostridium tetani is gram positive rod and motile with terminal spores giving drum stick appearance

2.Culture:On blood agar incubated anareobicly

Actually it is recovered from the wound in only 30% people

3.Spatula test: The posterior pharyngeal wall is touched with spatula and reflex spasm of masseters indicates positive test

4.Tetanus antibody test

5.Diagnosis by culture :isolation is more likely from excised bits of necrotic depths of wounds material is collected and inoculated on blood agar plate. C. Tetani produces swarming growth which may be detected on opposite half of plate after 1-2 days of anaerobic inoculation the material is inoculated into 3 tubes of cooked meat broth 1st is heated up to 80•c for 15 minutes the second for 5 minutes third is left untreated

The purpose of hearing for different periods to kill vegetative bacteria while leaving the undamaged spores and leave them at 37 degrees

Then c.tetani is isolated in pure culture by subculturing from the swarming edge of growth

6.For INVIVO purposes :toxigenity testing is done

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