• Question: What is the smallest bacteria know to man and what can the most deadly bacteria know to man do

    Asked by Not Admin to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi, mycoplasma are pretty small for bacteria so would say they are probably one of the smallest. There are many deadly bacteria such as the causes of anthrax and plague. “Flesh eating bacteria” can be pretty nasty because of the toxins they produce in wound infections. There are others that can make you go mad like brucellosis and syphilis. Others cause horrible disfiguring lesions like leprosy and gangrene. I will leave you to choose which you feel is the most deadly of these.

    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      The smallest type of bacteria are probably mycoplasma. They can cause infections such as pneumonia and pelvic inflammatory disease.

      Some researchers have tried to make the smallest possible bacteria, by taking out genes: http://www.pnas.org/content/103/2/425.full

      How deadly bacteria are depends on where they are in your body. You could have MRSA growing inside your nose right now and not know about it, but if it infected a wound it could kill you. Same with the bacteria in your gut – they are helpful for you to digest food, but in your blood they could kill you.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      This is a hard question to answer. Bacteria often change size and shape depending on the stage of reproduction and how many nutrients are available.

      Mycoplasma gallicepticum is thought to be the smallest known organism capable of independant reproducton and growth. It is a bacteria and it lives in primate bladders, kidneys and lungs. Rickettsia and Chlamydia are also classed as ultramicrobacteria (very small).

      Most deadly can be classified in two ways. One is the most deaths caused worldwide, tuberculosis is one of the worst in this category. One third of the population are infected with it, and although only a small proportion of them die, it is still a hell of a lot of people! The second was of classifying most deadly is the number of deaths per infection. This often changes by country. One that recently caused major problems amongst soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan is called Acinetobacter Baumannii. It is quite dangerous and rapidly became resistant to most antibiotics. They now can only treat it with a very old rug called colistin which can cause serious kidney damage. Without treatment, doctors think the bacteria (nicknamed Iraqibacter) would have a very high kill rate. However, we don’t know as generally veterans have very advanced medical care.

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