Question

A 28 year old woman, 18 weeks pregnant following a one-night stand unprotected sexual encounter, went to her doctor after 36 hours of headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting. Her doctor admitted her to the hospital immediately with a 104F fever and neck stiffness. All neurological exams were otherwise normal. A gram smear of the CSF (test 1) was conducted and revealed gram-negative diplococci and culture on chocolate agar showed small colorless colonies (test 2). The doctors treated her with an antibiotic, but also performed a third test to confirm diagnosis molecularly. She recovered without any complications,
1. What did this patient have?
2. What risk factors made this patient more likely to get this infection?
3. What would this patient be treated with?
4. What type of molecular diagnostic test might the doctors have used and how does it work?

Answer 1

Answer:

1. On the basis of the symptoms given in the question the most possible infection would be Meningitidis by Neisseria meningitides bacteria, gram-negative diplococcus.

2. The infection mostly spread by saliva or droplets while coughing, or sneezing. It can also spread by having oral sex.

3. Antibiotics such as Cephalosporin antibiotic, ampicillin, Penicillin, and Chloramphenicol used in the treatment of Meningitidis.

4. PCR-based meningococcal DNA detection is the main or common molecular level diagnosis of these infections. It amplifies the DNA and amplified PCR products are visualized on gel-based systems. This involves, amplifying, annealing in 5 to 3 prime direction.