How much General Microbio is needed?

[Gunneria]

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I was wondering, in addition to knowing bug specifics, how much "general micro" knowledge is needed (i.e.- stuff on structure, pathogenesis, bacterial and viral genetics, lab diagnosis, vaccines, etc...) for example, Lippencott Microbio has a good first 50 pages and nicely illustrated but not so comprehensive, Levinson has about ~100 pages detailing everything which is nice but not very visual, and the book "Problems-Based Microbiology" has nice appendices at the end especially a comprehensive section for Diagnostic Approaches to Microbiology along with all the other stuff. I was wondering how much of this is important and what source you guys used?

 

[johndoe3344]

I personally would (and did) just use FA and maybe a few glances into class notes for things that need additional clarification.

 

[jatt12]

FA is enough, if you have strong background in Micro from lectures.

 

[AndyRSC]

I would also suggest FA, if nothing else. Beyond that, Micro Made Ridiculously Simple has a surprisingly good intro to general micro, but extremely short and probably insufficient. Conversely, the appendices in Problem-Based Micro are on the lengthy end, include much that you don't need to know, and contain outdated info here and there. I've heard nothing but wonderful things about Levinson, though I haven't used it myself; its length may be worthwhile.

Also, if you have or plan to read the entire Robbins book, then supplementing FA with chapter 8, I think, should be enough. There is no formal separation, though, and many of the general principles are buried within specific pathogen description.

 

[mdeast]

I was wondering, in addition to knowing bug specifics, how much "general micro" knowledge is needed (i.e.- stuff on structure, pathogenesis, bacterial and viral genetics, lab diagnosis, vaccines, etc...) for example, Lippencott Microbio has a good first 50 pages and nicely illustrated but not so comprehensive, Levinson has about ~100 pages detailing everything which is nice but not very visual, and the book "Problems-Based Microbiology" has nice appendices at the end especially a comprehensive section for Diagnostic Approaches to Microbiology along with all the other stuff. I was wondering how much of this is important and what source you guys used?

Micro questions seem pretty straightforward. It's usually just identifying the organism, or the antibiotic/treatment that you would use for the organism. Or something specific about diagnosis or pathogenesis (i.e. the type of selection media you use, or the molecular mechanism of the toxin the bug produces). Know your STDs backwards and forwards, your TORCHES, general info about vaccines, gram +, gram -, systemic mycoses, HIV/AIDS drugs, viral classifications, and at least glance over the parasites (though, admittedly, these don't come up too often).

Definitely a Bacteria > Fungi/Viruses > Parasites hierarchy.