Meet The Microbiologist - The Scientists Behind The Microbiology

Many hospital-acquired bacterial infections are also drug-resistant. Amy Mathers describes her work tracking these bacteria to their reservoir in hospital sinks, and what tools allowed her team to make these discoveries. Mathers also discusses her work on Klebsiella, a bacterial pathogen for the modern era. Subscribe (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Julie’s Biggest Takeaways Nosocomial infections are a type of opportunistic infection: one that wouldn’t normally cause disease in healthy individuals. Once the immune system is compromised due to other infection or treatment, the opportunist bacteria take advantage of the conditions to grow to higher numbers and cause disease. How are different pathogens transmitted in the hospital? Previously, transmission was considered to occur from one patient to a second patient, perhaps via a healthcare worker. When patients from very different parts of the hospital began to come down with the same resistant strain of bacteria, witho