Page 334 - AWSAR 2.0

310 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019 Ms. Oyahida Khatun
Taking on Superbug
Ms. Debika Ojha*
Email: debikaojha@gmail.com
Over 20 students have fallen ill at the Gujarat National Law University due to food poisoning, The Times of
India reported on the 27 September 2019. This, is only one of the many incidents of food poisoning recounted in our country. We do often read about the incidences of outbreaks of food poisoning in newspapers, which occur, sometimes in schools, temples, or even in homes. Food poisoning is usually caused by consuming food contaminated with bacteria, virus, or toxins. Amongst them, bacterial contamination is the most common cause of food poisoning. The root cause is several known bacteria, however, the most commonly studied are Campylobacter jejuni, Clortridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus,
Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella spp. Amongst the bacteria listed above, L. monocytogenes is one of the most fatal pathogens and the disease caused by this is known as “Listeriosis”. Its symptoms include severe diarrhea, fever, vomiting and, sometimes, in acute conditions it causes death. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA, each year nearly 1,600 people get effected by listeriosis and about 260 die. The most common foods contaminated by L. monocytogenes are meat, seafood and dairy products. Frozen meat and meat products are also not out of bound of these organisms as they can sustain and grow at extremely low temperatures and pH.
However, we are aware that modern medicine has come up with cures, in the form
* Ms. Debika Ojha, PhD Scholar from CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, is pursuing her research on “Molecular Characterisation of Listeria Monocytogenes RecA, SSB and RecX Proteins: Implications in Homologous Recombination and Antibiotic Resistance”. Her popular science story entitled “Taking on Superbug” has been selected for AWSAR Award.