Corynebacterium Diptheria
Details of the “rubric”for marking of Assignment 2
1. Appearance and title A title page is not required but please type your name on the paper. A title is required for the paper. Send the paper to the instructor in the recommended format (.doc, .docx or .rtf). No pdfs please. Spelling and grammar are important – if you have problems please use grammar/spelling software that is freely available on the web (e.g. Grammarly).
2. Description of Organism & Transmission Be thorough in describing your organism. e.g. if it is a bacterium then characteristics like Gram morphology, gaseous conditions, preferred temperatures, spore forming or not, motile or not and how, capsule or not and the composition. Describe transmission according to the Canadian Hospital Infection Control Association – this is posted on eclass for you. Name the reservoir where the organism is usually found.
3. Correctness of factual information Marks will be deducted for false information, even if you have found this information in some source. An example could be that you describe S. pyogenes as a Gram negative bacterium. It is of course a Gram positive streptococcus.
4. Virulence factors Virulence factors are attributes that the organism uses to establish infection. This might be ligands on the cell surface that bind to receptors on host cells, or it might be toxins or enzymes, etc. Be quite specific and do not just list the major virulence factor.
5. Mechanism of pathogenicity This refers to how the organism uses its virulence factors to cause the disease, maintain latency or cause tissue damage. How does a named toxin work? What do the enzymes do? If there are no major virulence factors then does the organism cause disease by lieu of inducing inflammation and how does this work?
6. Disease symptoms List and describe the major symptoms expected. If you use medical terms you will want to either define them or use alternate wordings. e.g. pruritis (itchiness).
7. Disease complications What are the late effects of infection? Does the infection cause a more serious complication like meningitis? Does it result in chronic disease, and if so which?
8. Antimicrobials/other treatments? Name the main antimicrobial used in Alberta and describe how it inhibits the microorganism. If there is a problem with resistance, describe that. If there are no antimicrobials available, then describe how the patient would be treated.
9. Vaccines/Antisera? Name and describe the type of vaccine formulation if there is a vaccine. If there is an antisera (e.g. HBIG or Hepatitis B immunoglobulin) then describe this.
10. References References should be listed as per the instructions in the assignment (Vancouver style). Refer to library tutorials for exact descriptions of how to reference, and make sure you cite in text. Do not use course handouts for references. Major references should always be published within the last five years as knowledge increases continually.
