19-04-2012, 01:14 PM
MICROBES IN HUMAN WELFARE
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What are Microbes?
Microbes are those living organisms which are microscopic.
These belong to kingdom Monera (e.g., Bacteria,
cyanobacteria, actinomycetes, etc.), Kingdom Fungi (e.g.,
rusts, smuts, moulds, etc.) and kingdom Protista (e.g.,
Ptotozoans)
Viruses, commonly called border-line organisms, viroids and
prions are also included in micro-organisms.
Production of Antibiotics
Definition. Antibiotic are substances, primarily produced by
certain harmless micro-organisms which in low
concentrations are antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms
such as pathogenic bacteria.
Etymologically, antibiotic means against life. The term
antibiotic was coined by Selman Waksman in 1942.It has
been derived from two Greek words : Anti = against; bio =
life.
Definition of sewage:
Sewage is the municipal waste water containing large
quantities of human excreta. Every day, large quantities of
sewage are produced in cities and towns:
This property of antibiotics to kill pathogenic microorganisms
is called Antibiosis.
Advanced waste management of tertiary treatment:
In this, salts like nitrates and phosphates are removed
by precipitation technique.
Water is now pure enough to drink.
Due to urbanization and increasing human population,
there is also increased formation of sewage while the
number of STPs are not enough to treat all the
quantities of sewage.
So untreated sewage is discharged into the rivers
leading to their pollution so increased chances of waterborne
diseases.