Hello my name is Salmonella typhimurium and I want to take this time out to introduce myself. I am a pathogenic gram-negative bacteria, facultatively anaerobic and of the family enterobacteriacea. I am made up of nonspore-forming rods, usually motile with peritrichous flagella and i can mostly be found living in the intestinal tracks of humans and animals. I am not only a member but I am one the most important part of my family. I am most often transmitted to humans through contaminated food and water. I have been known to be one of the leading causes of gastroenteritis.
You still don’t know who i am? Well i don’t like to brag, but i am responsible for causing fevers, nausea, vomiting and severe abdominal cramps and diarrhea. From time to time, I sometimes claim the lives of some humans and animals. I am not a lazy person. I work very hard to make a name for myself and to earn the reputation that I have today. I have to admit that i sometimes like to take a break and not work as hard. The only days when my work seems easy is when I have to cover for my co-workers and go to the dapartments “very young children”, “very old” , and in “compromised immune systems.” Too bad my work is not always easy. An average day of work me last anywhere from 6 to 48 hours. I sometimes try to work a little overtime to earn some extra cash. When i work overtime, I have to move from the “intestine” department to the “blood stream” department. From the blood stream dept, i sometimes have to do my last rounds “Systemically.” Shhhh! don’t tell my friends but i sometimes get lost and end up in other departments a.k.a “body systems.”
Unfortunately, everytime it try to move up in my company, or when i try to win employee of the month, that annoying person named Antibiotics comes in my way. Don’t worry, one day i will definitely defeat him. My genus is Salmonella and Enterobacteriacea is apart of my family. Some of my friends include E.Coli and K.pnuemonia.
References
http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/general/diagnosis.html
http://www.ehow.com/about5467276_salmonella-typhimurium-symptoms.html
http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/salmonella_typhimurium
