• Question: what type of bacteria/germs/virus is the most dangerous

    Asked by 659mcrk46 to Aaron, Ananthi, Ashley, Christopher, Emma, Lea on 4 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by 244mcrk46, 484mcrk46.
    • Photo: Emma Stevenson

      Emma Stevenson answered on 4 Nov 2017:

      There are a few that spring to mind. There is the virus Ebola, which has been in the news lately. But there are a few bacteria which produce some really dangerous toxins such as anthrax such as bacillus anthracis or clostridium botulinum. Just a tiny amount of the toxin they produce can be deadly.

    • Photo: Ananthi Ramachandran

      Ananthi Ramachandran answered on 5 Nov 2017:

      You can divide bacteria into 4 categories. Categories 1 to 4, with 1 being the least dangerous bacteria and 4 being super super dangerous. Most are in categories 2 and 3. But there are a few viruses in category 4, one being Ebola virus.

    • Photo: Christopher Richardson

      Christopher Richardson answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      You could get really complicated here but very easily the most dangerous types of bacteria or viruses are the ones that we can no longer treat or have no cures for! Antibiotic resistance for bacteria makes them more dangerous than they have ever been meaning simple things we have always taken for granted like going to the dentist and having a tooth out will soon become impossible! For viruses not being able to treat them quickly allows them to spread and kill more people faster!

    • Photo: Ashley Otter

      Ashley Otter answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      Lots of microbes are classified into their safety category like Ananthi has said. You get the least dangerous microbes in category (or biosafety level 1/BSL1), this includes lab strains like E. coli K12 which is almost harmless to us. Category 2/BSL2 microbes include things like Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA. Category 3/BSL3 are things like Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), as these are pathogens that can make us sick, but we usually have drugs to treat them. Then with containment level 4/BSL4, these are all viruses that we have no known cure for or drugs, like ebola.

      I’m lucky enough to work with TB, its tough working in a BSL3 lab, which is great to actually work on the pathogen and work out lots of its interesting genes!

    • Photo: Aaron Brown

      Aaron Brown answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      Again, what everyone else says, Ebola springs to mind.

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