Bloodstream infections (BSIs), septicemia which include bacteremias when the infections are bacterial and fungemias when the infections are fungal, are infections present in the blood. Blood is normally a sterile environment, so the detection of microbes in the blood is always abnormal. A bloodstream infection is different from sepsis, which is the host response to bacteria.
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It was founded in 1899. The Society publishes a variety of scientific journals, textbooks, and other educational materials related to microbiology and infectious diseases. ASM organizes annual meetings, as well as workshops and professional development opportunities for its members.
Antibiotic sensitivity testing or antibiotic susceptibility testing is the measurement of the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics. It is used because bacteria may have resistance to some antibiotics. Sensitivity testing results can allow a clinician to change the choice of antibiotics from empiric therapy, which is when an antibiotic is selected based on clinical suspicion about the site of an infection and common causative bacteria, to directed therapy, in which the choice of antibiotic is based on knowledge of the organism and its sensitivities.
Hildrus Augustus "Gus" Poindexter was an American bacteriologist who studied the epidemiology of tropical diseases. Poindexter was the third son and sixth child of eleven children born from the legal Christian marital union of Fred Poindexter, born enslaved in Kentucky, and Luvenia Gilbert, born free in Virginia. (1,2) His father was a tenant farmer and along with his siblings, he grew up learning and tending to farming tasks.
Stuart Blank Levy was a researcher and physician at Tufts University. He was among the first to advocate for greater awareness of antibiotic resistance and founded the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.
Patricia Charache was a physician specializing in infectious disease and microbiology. She was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for more than 50 years, retiring as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pathology, Medicine, and Oncology.
The Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) is a non-profit association of pharmacists and other allied health professionals who specialize in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship. According to the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties, clinical pharmacists specializing in infectious diseases are trained in the use of microbiology and pharmacology to develop, implement, and monitor drug regimens that incorporate the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of antimicrobials for patients.
Karen Bush is an American biochemist. She is a Professor of Practice in Biology at Indiana University and the interim director of the Biotechnology program. Bush conducts research focusing on bacterial resistance mechanisms to beta-lactam antibiotics.
Alasdair Macintosh Geddes is Emeritus Professor of Infection at the University of Birmingham Medical School. In 1978, as the World Health Organization (WHO) was shortly to announce that the world's last case of smallpox had occurred a year earlier in Somalia, Geddes diagnosed a British woman with the disease in Birmingham, England. She was found to be the index case of the outbreak and became the world's last reported fatality due to the disease, five years after he had gained experience on the frontline of the WHO's smallpox eradication programme in Bangladesh in 1973.
Donna M. Wolk is an American microbiologist who is Director of Clinical Microbiology at the Geisinger Health System. In 2017, she was honored by the American Society for Microbiology for her efforts to improve patient care using microbiology.
Sydney "Sid" Martin Finegold was an American physician, medical school professor, and medical researcher, specializing in anaerobic bacteriology.
Carey-Ann Burnham is a clinical microbiologist, and a professor of Pathology and Immunology, Molecular Microbiology, Pediatrics and Medicine in Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Neisseria animaloris, formerly named CDC group EF-4a, is a gram-negative coccoid rod. The bacterium is a commensal of the upper respiratory tract of cats and dogs, and they may cause pulmonary infections in cat. In humans Neisseria animaloris have been reported to cause wound infection after animal bites but also chronic otitis media, bacteremia and endophtalmitis.
Adeel Ajwad Butt is a Pakistani–American Infectious Diseases physician, Professor of Medicine and Population Health Sciences at the Weill-Cornell Medical College He is also the founder President and CEO of Innovations in Healthcare Advocacy, Research and Training (I-HART).
John Charles Sherris was an English-American medical doctor, pathologist, and bacteriologist. He was the president of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in 1983.
Albert Balows was an American clinical microbiologist. He was the president of the American Society for Microbiology in 1981.
Janet Gilsdorf is an American pediatric infectious diseases physician, scientist, and writer at the University of Michigan. Her research has focused on the pathogenic, molecular, and epidemiologic features of the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae. She served as the Director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the University of Michigan Health System from 1989 to 2012 and Co-Director of the Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan from 2000 – 2015. In addition to her scientific publications, she is also the author of two novels, one memoir, one non-fiction book, and a number of medically-oriented essays.
Yvonne Lue is a Jamaican doctor who works in the field of medical microbiology. Lue is one of the few Black women who have led clinical microbiology since the 1950-70s. She is the President for the New York City Branch of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
Karen Colleen Carroll is an American infectious disease pathologist and medical microbiologist specialized in the evaluation of diagnostic platforms and the epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections. She is a professor of pathology and director of the division of medical microbiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Mariana Castanheira is a Brazilian microbiologist who is the Chief Scientific Officer at JMI Laboratories. Her research considers antimicrobial surveillance and the design. She was elected Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology in 2023.
