Question

please I need help with presentation on Normal Flora. thanks.

Answer 1

Normal flora are the micro organisms that live on another living organisms (human or animal ) or inanimate object without causing disease. The human body is not sterile;we become colonised by bacteria from the moment we are born. We are covered with and contain within our intestines, approximately 100 trillion bacteria that form the normal flora of our body. This normal flora helps to prevent us becoming colonised with more dangerous bacteria, which might lead to infection.

Many circumstances can change normal flora,e.g.,normal flora of the human body begins to change after admissions into a hospital or long term care facility.The progress usually begins around day 4 of admission;this is why after 4 days of admission the antibiotics for hospital acquire infections change.It is not because the severity of the illness is different.

Knowledge of normal flora of the human body allows:

• prediction of the pathogen causing infection as bacteria tend to grow in specific body sites e.g., Streptococcus pneumonia from the upper respiratory tract causing pneumonia or staphylococcus aureus from the skin causing intravenous cannula infections.
• investigation for underlying abnormalities in specific areas of the body when bacteria are isolated from normally sterile sites e.g., Escherichia coli isolation from blood cultures indicates probable intra abdominal pathology because E.coli is part of the normal gastrointestinal flora or isolation of viridans Streptococcus in blood cultures may indicate infective endocarditis as a result of poor dentition asb viridans Streptococcus are part of the normal mouth flora