Resistance & Immunityof Bacillus

Resistance & Immunity
Active immunity to anthrax can be induced in susceptible animals by vaccination with live attenuated bacilli, with spore suspensions, or with protective antigens from culture filtrates.
Treatment
Many antibiotics are effective against anthrax in humans, but treatment must be started early. Ciprofloxacin is recommended for treatment; penicillin G, along with gentamicin or streptomycin, has previously been used to treat anthrax.
Epidemiology, Prevention, & Control
Soil is contaminated with anthrax spores from the carcasses of dead animals. These spores remain viable for decades. Perhaps spores can germinate in soil at pH 6.5 at proper temperature. Grazing animals infected through injured mucous membranes serve to perpetuate the chain of infection. Contact with infected animals or with their hides, hair, and bristles is the source of infection in humans. Control measures include (1) disposal of animal carcasses by burning or by deep burial in lime pits, (2) decontamination (usually by autoclaving) of animal products, (3) protective clothing and gloves for handling potentially infected materials, and (4) active immunization of domestic animals with live attenuated vaccines. Persons with high occupational risk should be immunized.
Bacillus cereus
Food poisoning caused by Bacillus cereus has two distinct forms: the emetic type, associated with fried rice, and the diarrheal type, associated with meat dishes and sauces. B cereus produces toxins that cause disease that is more an intoxication than a food-borne infection. The emetic form is manifested by nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and occasionally diarrhea and is self-limiting, with recovery occurring within 24 hours. It begins 1–5 hours after ingestion of rice and occasionally pasta dishes. B cereus is a soil organism that commonly contaminates rice. When large amounts of rice are cooked and allowed to cool slowly. The diarrheal form has an incubation period of 1–24 hours and is manifested by profuse diarrhea with abdominal pain and cramps; fever and vomiting are uncommon. The enterotoxin may be preformed in the food or produced in the intestine.
B cereus is an important cause of eye infections, severe keratitis, endophthalmitis, and panophthalmitis. Typically, the organisms are introduced into the eye by foreign bodies associated with trauma .
Other Bacillus species are rarely associated with human disease. It is difficult to differentiate superficial contamination with bacillus from genuine disease caused by the organism. Five Bacillus species (B thuringiensis, B popilliae, B sphaericus, B larvae, and B lentimorbus) are pathogens for insects, and some have been used as commercial insecticides.