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Antibiotic: Substance, produced by a microorganism, that inhibits or kills other microorganisms; a broad-spectrum antibiotic is therapeutically effective against a wide range of bacteria.
Antibacterial: Anything that destroys bacteria or suppresses their growth or their ability to reproduce. Heat, chemicals such as chlorine, and antibiotic drugs all have antibacterial properties. Many antibacterial products for cleaning and handwashing are sold today. Such products do not reduce the risk for symptoms of viral infectious diseases in otherwise healthy persons.
Antimicrobial: Chemical substance, either produced by a microorganism or by synthetic means, that is capable of killing or suppressing growth of microorganisms.
Antiseptic: Compound that stops or inhibits growth of bacteria without necessarily killing them.
Autoclave: Instrument consisting of a double-walled, sealable enclosure in which steam heat at greater than atmospheric pressure is used to sterilize biologically contaminated material.
Bacteria: Living organisms, microscopic in size, which usually consist of a single cell. Most bacteria use organic matter for their food and produce waste products as a result of their life processes.
Bacterium: The transient appearance of bacteria in the blood.
Biofilm: A slime layer which naturally develops when bacteria attach to an inert support that is made of a material such as stone, metal, or wood. There are also non-filamentous bacteria that will produce an extracellular polysaccharide that acts as a natural glue to immobilize the cells. In nature, nonfilament-forming microorganisms will stick to the biofilm surface, locating within an area of the biofilm that provides an optimal growth environment (i.e., pH, dissolved oxygen, nutrients). Since nutrients tend to concentrate on solid surfaces, a microorganism saves energy through cell adhesion to a solid surface rather than by growing unattached and obtaining nutrients randomly from the medium. Pseudomonas and Nitrosomonas strains are especially well known for their ability to form a strong biofilm.
Biotype: Biological or biochemical type of an organism. Organisms of the same biotype will display identical biological or biochemical characteristics. Certain key markers are used to define and recognize biotypes in tracing the spread of organisms in the environment and in epidemics or outbreaks.
C. Difficile: Clostridium difficile: A bacterium that is one of the most common causes of infection of the large bowel (colon). In technical terms, Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is an obligate anaerobic or microaerophilic, gram-positive, spore-forming, rod-shaped bacillus.
Cell wall: The layer or structure that lies outside the cytoplasmic membrane; it supports and protects the membrane and gives the cell shape.
Communicable disease: An illness due to a specific infectious agent or its toxic products that arises through transmission of that agent or its products from an infected person, animal or inanimate reservoir to a susceptible host; either directly or indirectly through an intermediate plant or animal host, vector or the inanimate environment. (Synonym: infectious disease).
Contamination: The presence of an infectious agent on a body surface, in clothes, bedding, toys, surgical instruments or dressings, or other inanimate articles or substances including water and food.
Cryptosporidiosis: Intestinal infection caused by coccidia (Cryptosporidium parvum).
Culture: A particular strain or kind of organism growing in a laboratory medium.
Decontamination: Process of rendering an object or area safe for unprotected people by removing or making harmless biological or chemical agents.
Disinfectant: Agent that destroys or inhibits microorganisms that cause disease.
Disinfection: Killing of infectious agents outside the body by direct exposure to chemical or physical agents. High-level disinfection may kill all microorganisms with the exception of high numbers of bacterial spores; it requires extended exposure to ensure killing of most bacterial spores. It is achieved, after thorough detergent cleaning, by exposure to specific concentrations of certain disinfectants (e.g., 2% glutaraldehyde, 6% stabilized hydrogen peroxide and up to 1% peracetic acid) for at least 20 minutes. Intermediate-level disinfection does not kill spores; it can be achieved by pasteurization (75 deg. C. [167 deg. F.] for 30 minutes) or by appropriate treatment with EPA-approved disinfectants.
E. coli: Short for Escherichia coli, the colon bacillus, a bacterium that normally resides in the human colon. Most strains of E coli are quite harmless. However, some strains of E. coli are capable of causing disease, sometimes disease of deadly proportions.
Enzyme: Organic substances (proteins) produced by living organisms and act as catalysts to speed up chemical changes.
Fungus (pl. fungi): An organism that is either filamentous or unicellular and lacks chlorophyll. It has a true nucleus enclosed in a membrane and chitin in the cell wall.
Germicide: An agent that destroys germs; disinfectant.
Gram-Negative: To describe a prokaryotic cell whose cell wall stains pink (negative) in Gram stain. The cell wall of a gram-negative bacterium contains relatively little peptidoglycan but contains an outer membrane composed of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), lipoprotein, and other complex macromolecules.
Gram-Positive: To describe a prokaryotic cell whose cell wall stains purple (positive) in Gram stain. The cell wall of a gram-positive bacterium consists chiefly of peptidoglycan and lacks the outer membrane of gram-negative cells.
Gram Stain: A differential stain that divides bacteria into two groups, gram-positive and gram-negative based on the ability to retain crystal violet when decolorized with an organic solvent such as ethanol.
Gram Variable: Some Gram-positive cells occur in an otherwise Gram-negative pure culture.
Growth: In microbiology, an increase in both cell number and cellular constituents.
Growth Rate: The rate at which growth occurs, usually expressed as the generation time.
Heterotroph: A microorganism which uses organic matter for energy and growth.
Hygroscopic: Absorbing or attracting moisture from the air.
Infection: Invasion by and multiplication of microorganisms in body tissue resulting in disease. Infection is not synonymous with infectious disease; the result may be inapparent (see Inapparent infection) or manifest (see Infectious disease). The presence of living infectious agents on exterior surfaces of the body, or on articles of apparel or soiled articles, is not infection, but represents contamination of such surfaces and articles. (See Infestation and Contamination).
Infectious Agent: An organism (virus, rickettsia, bacteria, fungus, protozoan or helminth) that is capable of producing infection or infectious disease. Infectivity expresses the ability of the disease agent to enter, survive and multiply in the host; infectiousness indicates the relative ease with which a disease is transmitted to other hosts.
Infectious Disease: A clinically manifest disease of humans or animals resulting from an infection. (See Infection).
Isopropyl Alcohol: (also 2-propanol, iso, isopro, rubbing alcohol, or the abbreviation IPA) is a common name for isopropanol, a colorless, flammable chemical compound with a strong odor. It has the molecular formula C3H8O and is the simplest example of a secondary alcohol, where the alcohol carbon is attached to two other carbons.
Leaching: Removal of valuable metals from ores by microbial action.
Logarithmic Phase: Period of maximal growth rate of a microorganism in a culture medium.
Lysing: A disintegration or breakdown of cells which releases organic matter.
Microorganism: A living organism too small to be seen with the naked eye; includes bacteria, fungi, protozoans, and microscopic algae; also includes viruses.
Mold: A filamentous fungus composed of filaments that generally form a colony that may be either fuzzy, powdery, wooly, velvety, or relatively smooth.
MRSA: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Nanotechnology: A technology with nanometer level structured materials (<100 nm) that employ a functional benefit provided by the nanostructural scale.
Necrosis: Pathological death of a cell or group of cells.
Nosocomial: Pertaining to or originating in hospital, as nosocomial infection.
Nosocomial Infection: An infection occurring in a patient in a hospital or other healthcare facility in whom it was not present or incubating at the time of admission; or the residual of an infection acquired during a previous admission. Includes infections acquired in the hospital but appearing after discharge, and also such infections among the staff of the facility (Synonym: hospital-acquired infection).
Opportunistic Infection: An infection caused by an organism capable of causing disease only in individuals whose resistance to infection is lowered.
OSHA: Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Pandemic: Epidemic over a wide geographical area, or even worldwide.
Parasite: An organism that lives on or in a living animal or plant host and derives nourishment from it. (Contrast with saprophyte.)
Pathogen: Any disease-producing microorganism.
Pathogenic: Capable of causing disease.
Personal Hygiene: In the field of infectious control, those protective measures, primarily within the responsibility of the individual, that promote health and limit the spread of infectious diseases, chiefly those transmitted by direct contact.
Quaternary Structure: In proteins, the number and arrangement of individual polypeptides in the final protein molecule.
Resistance: A permanent change in the organism that renders an antibiotic ineffective, at essentially any reasonable concentration.
Spore: Propagule that develops by sexual reproduction (ascospore, basidiospore, zygospore) or by asexual means within a sporangium (sporangiospore). Those most commonly seen in the clinical laboratory are usually enclosed in a sac-like structure (as opposed to conidia which are free, not enclosed).
Sporoformer: A bacterial species capable of producing Endospores; examples of Spore-forming anaerobes are Clostridium spp. and Sarcina ventriculi.
Staph: Staphylococcus.
Substrate: The base on which an organism lives. Or the base material on which coatings can be applied. Zeolite - The patented multi-faceted zeolite crystal carrier is a three dimensional release mechanism that provides efficient release of silver ions independent of particle orientation in the substrate. The silver ions exchange with other positive ions (often sodium) from the moisture in the environment, effecting a release of silver on demand.
Toxicity: The relative degree of being poisonous or toxic. A condition which may exist in wastes and will inhibit or destroythe growth or function of certain organisms.
Unicellular: Single celled organism, such as bacteria.
Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci: (VRE) Vancomycin-resistant enterococci infection is the most common type of infection acquired by patients while hospitalized. Patients at risk for VRE are those who are already ill, and hospitalized, including individuals with diabetes, elderly, ICU patients, kidney failure patients, or patients requiring catheters. Enterococci can survive for months in the digestive tract and female genital tract. Other risk factors for acquiring VRE include those how have been previously treated with vancomycin and combinations of other antibiotics. Treatment of VRE is generally with other antibiotics other than vancomycin. Prevention of VRE can be achieved by proper hand hygiene.
Virus: A genetic element containing either DNA or RNA that is able to alternate between intracellular and extracellular states, the latter being the infectious state.
WAS: Waste activated sludge, mg/L. The excess growth of microorganisms which must be removed from the process to keep the biological system in balance.
Zone of Inhibition: The area of no bacterial growth around an antimicrobial agent in the disk-diffusion test.
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