Streptococcus

It was the first true broad-spectrum antibacterial.

But when they dropped Prontosil Red onto a Petri dish full of Streptococcus...

Nothing happened.

Literally nothing.

Well, the biggest architectural divide is between gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

Right.

So in gram-positive bacteria like Staphylococcus or Streptococcus, that eptadal glycan chain-link fence is incredibly thick.

It's tightly cross-linked.

Um, so basically it comes under, like, a subset of PANS, which is a pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome.

Um, and basically PANDAS then is a subset of that, which means it's associated with Strep A infection, which, as we all know, is a really common infection in children.

Strep, yeah.

Yeah.

T- before we continue with the story, because most parents will be w- will be worrying now if, if, you know, if there's any touch of a cough at all, is it whooping cough? Is it whooping cough? Is it strep? Is it just a sore throat? What, what is strep?

So strep is e- like, it's very common.

I mean, Strep A, some of us carry Strep A in our systems but never develop the symptoms.

So we've all been tested, and we, we, we, now we're not carriers.

Gram-positive bacteria

have thick cell membranes, and they're a huge group that includes species that live individually, like Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, as well as some colonial bacteria that are responsible for diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis.

And there are lots of gram-negative bacteria, too, which have thinner membranes.

The biggest group here are the proteobacteria, named after Proteus, because they take so many forms.

You're already familiar with two of these gangs through clinical experience.

Strep and staph are terms we use clinically that refer to bacterial arrangement.

Strep is a chain of cells and staph is a clump of cells.

Cocci bacteria can appear as chains or clumps, but rods do not clump up, so you'll never hear the term staphylobacilli.

That gang doesn't exist.

Uh, strep I'm familiar with.

Streptococcus, I think he ran for president back in the '80s.

[laughs] '88, I think.

Yeah.

The other is also a micrococcus in which the spherical cells are united in chains like strings of pearls.

This is called Streptococcus pyogenes.

This latter is also called the Streptococcus of erysipelas because it has been demonstrated to be the cause of erysipelatous inflammations.

These two species of pathogenic bacteria give rise to a great variety of infectious processes.

Both are found either separately or associated in the pus of abscesses, in boils and carbuncles, in suppurating wounds, in puerperal fever, in peritonitis, in suppurative disease of the ear, in general blood poisoning, etc.

So dexamethasone has data that suggests that patient's morbidity improves, uh, if it's given before the antibiotics, so the idea that it tames down the release and the fight of the immune system.

Um, ceftriaxone is given to treat the most common cause of community-acquired meningitis in almost all age groups, which is to treat Streptococcus.

Uh, streptococcus pneumonia.

Vancominus- vancomycin is intent, is intent- is intended not to treat anything else, but to intreat, to treat a small number, about 1%, of stre- strep pneumo that tends to be cefuroxime-resistant, 'cause you can't take any gambles on that.

And unfortunately, most babies... have either zero, especially if they have a lot of like colicky symptoms, eczema, things like that, or they have like 20%, which is way too low.

And when there's not this protective bacteria, then other like unfriendly bacteria like E. coli, Klebsiella, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus could inhabit baby's gut and then cause silent issues, like immune issues.

Like, you know, sometimes they're not acutely sick.

but they're chronically uncomfortable, maybe have constipation issues or bloating, spit-ups.