Determining the clinical course in patients with viral or bacterial infection for acute cough — NIHR Community Healthcare MICYou are sick with a sore throat and fever. Your doctor does a throat swab and makes a microscope slide. Under the microscope, they find long chains of spherical cells that lack membrane bound organelles.
Do you have a viral or bacterial or fungal infection? How do you know?
a
You have a viral infection, as viruses form long cellular chains unique to your cells.
b
You have a bacterial infection, as bacteria are simple prokaryotic cells - and you are not.
c
You have a fungal infection, as fungi are simple prokaryotic cells - as are you.
d
Impossible to determine from the information supplied.
d
Impossible to determine from the information supplied.
The answer is d) Impossible to determine from the information supplied.
While the presence of long chains of spherical cells may suggest a bacterial infection, further testing is needed to confirm the nature of the infection. Additional diagnostic tests, such as a bacterial culture, would be required to identify the specific organism causing the infection.
The correct answer is a) You have a viral infection, as viruses form long cellular chains unique to your cells.
To determine whether the infection is viral, bacterial, or fungal based on the information provided, we can analyze the characteristics of the microscopic findings.
The presence of long chains of spherical cells that lack membrane-bound organelles suggests a viral infection. Viruses are non-living infectious particles that consist of genetic material enclosed in a protein coat. They lack the cellular machinery necessary for independent living and reproduction. When a virus infects a host cell, it uses the host's cellular machinery to replicate and produce more viral particles. The long chains observed under the microscope are likely the result of viral replication within host cells.
On the other hand, bacteria are prokaryotic cells that have their own cellular structures and organelles. They typically do not form long chains of spherical cells like the ones described in this scenario. Fungi, although also simple cells, are eukaryotic organisms and possess a distinct cellular structure different from both viruses and bacteria.
Therefore, based on the information provided, we can determine that the infection is most likely viral.