What is bacteria, and how does it spread?
That sneaky enemy always hangs out at the bottom of civilization, but it’s there and does the better to harm people. It is bacteria who is with us every day.
Bacteria are one celled organisms that belong to a separate kingdom called monorans. They live by simply crawling around and absorbing food. As anyone can imagine, they have extremely short lives, but extremely short generations too (meaning that they multiply very fast).
Not all bacteria are harmful, but, many are. Yogurt has a special bacterium that provides many nutritional benefits and builds up your immune system. However, bad ones kill essential cells in the body or make them go crazy. Depending on the type, the effect could either cause death or illness for a couple of days.
Bacteria will eventually die in a petri dish because of the cramped conditions. However, out in the open air, it can thrive extremely easily and make anybody fall to a sickness if the appropriate measures are not taken. There are many ways they can be easily spread:
1. Sneezing or coughing spreads germs .
2. Touching someone.
3. Touching food with unclean hands
4. Infections from wounds (don't pick your scabs).
There are simple ways to avoid infections, too:
1. WASH YOUR HANDS OFTEN (this kills germs on the most bacteria infested place on your body, in your hands).
2. Don't stick your fingers in your nose or mouth, and don't rub your eyes.
3. Meat should be cooked to the point where it's well-done (cooking kills harmful bacteria).
4. Raw vegetables and meat DO NOT MIX.
There are two main types of bacteria, aerobic and anaerobic. Let's put it this way, they are completely not the same. Let's start with aerobic bacteria, since they are like us in some ways.
Aerobic bacteria have body systems (or simple versions of them) to survive, so they need oxygen and food, the same things we as humans need. They even have respiration systems, so they "breathe" sort of like we do. Because of this, their location is limited; they only live in certain places where there is ample oxygen to survive. These are the kind that will die eventually in a petri dish because of the lack of nutrients.
Anaerobic bacteria is the exact opposite of aerobic bacteria. They can live almost anywhere, like inside your stomach because they don't need oxygen. They are also usually harmful, but if exposed to oxygen(O2) for too long, they die. But remember, demonstrating proper hygiene can get rid of most of the bad bacteria, whether aerobic or anaerobic.
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Did you know?
When you wash your hands properly, you should be able to sing happy birthday twice before you are done. In our school, we did a survey which showed that only 2 out of 53 students follow this rule, meaning that only about 45 people in the entire school (about 1200 people) wash their hands for the correct amount of time. |
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