Introduction
The health care sector is a field that many people are unable to venture into because of varied reasons. Involvement in medical courses sometimes requires high grades in lower levels of learning which cuts out a significant lot whose interest could have been in medical health. However, some people have no interest in this field due to the nature of tasks and responsibilities of doctors, nurses, and laboratory technicians in a hospital setting.
My growing interest in medical microbiology has taken quite a period to get to where it is now. When I was at the age of five, I wondered why people caught a cold, especially during the cold season. I needed to know where this “cold” came from and why it made people cough, sneeze, or get running noses. My inquisitiveness was of little help. The answers I got just prompted me to question further. I could not understand how this infection could be passed on from one person to the other. I needed to find answers to all my questions and this significantly built my interest in becoming a medical microbiologist.
My high school life was so engrossed in health-related issues whenever they cropped up in class. I wanted to find an answer to questions that had piled in my mind. During my third year in high school, I had a chance to work as a community social worker under a program that was initiated to engage students in community work. I went to work in a local health center, entering data, and helping in other minor chores. It was during this time that I had a chance to visit a typical microbiology laboratory. I was introduced to some techniques that medical microbiologists use in disease diagnosis. By then, everything seemed so vague in my mind. I cannot even remember whether anything made sense to me by then.
Qualities of medical microbiologist
A microbiologist needs to be intelligent so that he or she can make logical decisions. This is important in a hospital environment. Microbiologists may need to decide which method or technique to apply in diagnosing diseases. This may be because of factors such as urgency. Some techniques applied in medical microbiology may take considerably long periods of time and the patient may not have time to wait depending on the nature of his or her disease condition. It is therefore vital that microbiologists take reasonable decisions applicable in such times.
A microbiologist should also be able to work accurately and efficiently. Results generated from the lab are used by physicians to treat patients. If a wrong or erroneous diagnosis is made, definitely the disease treated will be wrong and the patient may end up dying. Therefore microbiologists must generate as genuine and accurate reports as possible. Patience and persistency is also an important characteristic that microbiologists should have. This will enhance good communication with workmates and patients independently. These are qualities that upon personal evaluation, I have a significant lot of them and some I believe are timely generated with exposure. These reasons make me feel that am the right candidate for this profession.
HIV and Microbiology
I believe there is a lot in medical microbiology as we stand today. As anticipated, most human infections are caused by pathogenic microorganisms. If we are to cure these infections effectively, we must understand the root causes. Medical microbiology lays a foundation that involves the study of medically important viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Upon understanding of basic science of medically important microorganisms, it becomes very easy to deal with them in disease conditions. For instance, the global demise of HIV Aids lies in the hand of microbiologists (Gilks, Brindle, & Mwachari 195). Understanding the science behind the HIV virus and its virulence properties lays a foundation in which scientists can formulate viral vaccines or antiviral drugs that could kill the virus.
Future of Cancer and related infections
In another case, treatment and/or control of cancer lies in chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and gene therapy. In the former, genetic methods of cancer treatment and control lie in the hands of microbiologists and geneticists (Jaracz, Chen, Kuznetsova, & Ojima 5044). This is in regard to the nature of cancer cells in the sense that some develop as a result of genetic mutations. Correction of such faulty genes is called gene therapy. Geneticists will therefore identify genes of interest; microbiologists will provide cloning vectors such as plasmids where the gene of interest will be inserted. The recombinant DNA is then transferred to human target cells where they induce required effects (Jaracz et al. 5048). There are so many future opportunities in regard to medical microbiology which aims at improving medical care.
Another important scope of microbiology is the production of antibiotics. Through genetic recombination and cloning, microorganisms such as bacteria can be manipulated to produce antibiotics. This has partly been achieved but there remains a vast future of exploration on how potential microorganisms are in the medical sector. Harnessing of products from some of these microorganisms has pronounced a promising future in this field of medicine (Jaracz et al. 5049).
Works Cited
Gilks, Brindle, & Chris Mwachari. “Disseminated Mycobacterium avium infection among HIV seropositive patients in Kenya.” J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Hum Retrovirol 8.1 (2012): 195-198. Print.
Jaracz, Chen, Kuznetsova, & Ojima I. “Recent advances in tumor-targeting anticancer drug conjugates.” Bioorg Med Chem 13.1 (2012): 5043-5054. Print.