• Question: How does bacteria spread and how does it cause desises

    Asked by 937gdge22 to Chris, Hayley, Jimi, Omur on 16 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      Bacteria are everywhere, but there are more kinds of bacteria than all the other living things put together. And some are good for us, while other are bad.

      The most common cause of sickness from the bad kind of bacteria is LPS. LPS or lipopolysaccharide is in the cell-wall of some types of bacteria, and it reacts with a part of our immune system and causes terrible fever and shock. But that bacteria aren’t doing it on purpose.

      Some bacteria have developed ways of hurting us on purpose, so that they can use our bodies to grow and spread. These include things like the tuberculosis bacteria.

      Some bacteria are normally friendly, like E. coli. E. coli, or Eschericha coli, normally live in your gut without any problems. It’s also very commonly used in the laboratory for all kinds of experiments… it’s not harmful. But bacteria can pass little pieces of information to each other on bits of DNA called plasmids. The bits of DNA help the bacterium to grown better, but sometimes that means harming us. So for example the strain of E. coli O157 contains three pieces of extra information that make it harmful.

    • Photo: Hayley Moulding

      Hayley Moulding answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Bacteria is absolutely everywhere but that is okay! It isn’t a disgusting things at all. It is usually a good thing. Sometimes, there is bad bacteria though. Bad bacteria spread by touch, so people not washing hands and touching other things, then others touching it. Things like not washing properly, and if you sneeze, if you cough. Sometimes we can’t avoid it at all. Bacteria in kitchens too and bathrooms, but that is okay. We just have to make sure we are very clean!

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