Gram stains and acid-fast stains of pus showed gram-positive acid-fast rods. What are the possible organisms?
I am not a microbiologist, but have you looked into M. tuberculosis and M. leprae?
I don't know what those are-I'm just struggling to get through this little bit of Science for a college course.
Both belong to Mycobacterium and they are both acid fast and considered gram-positive. The former causes tuberculosis, and the latter, Hansen's disease.
There are other organisms that are both gram-positive and acid-fast (rod-shaped).
Try googling acid-fast gram-positive for more choices.
Thanks! would that be the anser though, to that question as well?
I wish microbiology were as easy as mathematics: either it's right or wrong.
We are facing an inumerable number of organisms under the microscope, so an organism with three simple criteria is not likely to isolate a single answer. Many other factors come in to determine what it is. The fact that the sample comes from pus also helps tell what the doctor is suspecting. Also, the shape, agglomeration and other visual factors under the microscope help to identify the unknown.
For the case of an academic exercise, you will get a better hint from what you have covered in the course, which should be a limited choice of possible organisms. Check if any of them is gram-positive, rod-shaped, and acid-fast. For your information, if we are looking for m. tuberculosis, the sample is usually sputum.
Ugh, believe it or not, this is a "glossing over" of the subject-the book I have doesn't even go chapter-by chapter. It starts with chapter 1, and skips to 5! After that, it goes from 7 to 10. The whole book might be 20 chapters, but not chronological-they skip. There's not much learning in it. The instructor even stated that we are not going to be scientists with this-it's just required material in a Paralegal course.
In that case, do your research and give the most plausible answer from the ones that suit the criteria.
Also, in the medical field, the rare diseases are called zebras, which are kind of exotic and we don't see them often. If we start doing tests for all the uncommon ones instead of the common ones, it will cost much more.
So, in principle, everything being equal, follow-up with the most common ones. In any case, further tests would be required.