The Microbiology Teacher

Ternyata, kasus bakteri Enterobacter sakazakii dalam susu formula terus berlanjut sampai ke tingkat Mahkamah Agung. Sebagai anggota komunitas akademik, saya menyayangkan kenapa kasus ini tidak ditangani dengan baik saat gugatan terhadap IPB, BPOM, dan Depkes  diajukan, sehingga harus sampai ke tingkat kasasi yang kemudian diterima oleh Mahkamah Agung.

Akibatnya, sekarang, IPB berada dalam posisi melawan hukum. Saya tidak yakin apa yang akan terjadi secara hukum, akan tetapi secara sosial, saya melihat masyarakat kehilangan kepercayaan terhadap dunia akademik yang dianggap berkonspirasi untuk menutupi informasi penting tentang kondisi dunia industri

Saya coba serta kutipan sebuah email dari rekan saya di IPB tentang kasus Enterobacter sakazakii:

Pengambilan sampel untuk penelitian ini dilakukan tahun 2004 dan risetnya sendiri dilakukan tahun 2004 dan 2005 sebagai kerjasama Jerman-Indonesia yang dipublikasikan di Journal Of Food Protection V0l 69 N0 12, 2006, Pages 3013-3017 di bawah judul Enterobacteriaceae in Dehydrated Powdered Infant Formula Manufactured in Indonesia and Malaysia. Jadi data yang positif dan negatif yang disajikan pada tabel di di jurnal ini menurut saya bukanlah “lontaran informasi”, tetapi penyajian data ilmiah.

Isolat dari hasil penelitian di ataslah yang dites lebih lanjut dengan menggunakan mencit dan diseminarkan pada seminar terbuka hibah bersaing di tahun 2008. Jadi yang diujikan pada penelitian ini adalah isolat yang diisolasi dari saampel yang dibeli pada tahun 2004-2005. Perlu diketahui, pada tahun ini tema ini masih emerging dan belum ada satu negara pun yang memiliki aturan tentang ini. WHO sendiri baru mengeluarkan guideline pada tahun 2008.

Berdasarkan hasil penelitian ini peneliti diundang oleh Badan POM pada tahun 2006-2007 dan BPOM telah menindak lanjutinya dalam bentuk pengendalian yang lebih ketat terhadap cemaran dan regulasi khusus pada tahun 2009. Dengan kata lain tanggung jawab peneliti yang melakukan hazard identification telah ditransfer ke ranah policy atau risk management jika kita tinjau dalam kerangka berpikir risk analysis in food safety. Jadi justru sebelum konsumen ribut, peneliti sudah menjalankan perannya dalam mengawal kesehatan massyarakat. Penelitian lebih lanjut menunjukkan bahwa praktek di rumah tangga yang baik (suhu air di atas 70 derajat) cukup untuk membunuh mikroba ini.

Alhasil tidak ditemukan lagi cemaran ini pada tahun 2009 dan 2010 sebagaimana yang telah dirilis oleh BPOM. Ini adalah contoh konkrit bagaimana penelitian berkontribusi positif untuk pengaturan.

Saya pikir informasi ini harus sampai ke masyarakat, sehingga pada saat diumumkan sesuai dengan amar putusan MA mereka sudah lebih pandai. Sekarang kita tinggal melakukan hitung-hitungan antara ancaman terhadap kesehatan karena sakazakii (yang notabene setelah tahun 2009 sudah tidak ada lagi berdasarkan surveillance BPOM) dengan kehebohan yang mungkin terjadi dari penyebutan merek tersebut. Semoga bermanfaat.

Jadi bagaimana kita harus bersikap? Begini, saat ini, standar-standar yang ditetapkan oleh BPOM maupun Depkes, sudah sangat ketat dan BPOM sebagai agen berwenang juga sudah mengadakan surveillance.  Tentu saja bahaya kontaminasi selalu ada, tapi tidak selalu dari bahan baku susu. Bisa saja dari air yang digunakan, atau wadah botol yang tidak bersih. Oleh karena itu, selalu perhatikan kebersihan dalam pengolahan makanan, terutama apabila menyangkut makanan bayi, yang sistem kekebalan tubuhnya belum sekuat orang dewasa.

As the big midterm for microbiology is nearing, I am currently developing exam questions, and stumbled upon a sample multiple choice exam that had answers like this (question not included as it is a potential exam question):

A. The mixed culture has grown in a manner that is consistent with your estimates based on growth rates for the isolated strains
B. The mixed culture, while clearly showing growth, did not increase as rapidly as you estimated based on growth rates for the isolated strains, suggesting that one or both of the strains, when grown together, have a decreased generation time
C. The mixed culture increased in number more rapidly than you would have predicted based on the individual growth rates, suggesting that the two strains interacted in a manner that increased the generation time of one or both of the strains.
D. This question is entirely too complicated for me to answer
E. I have decided not to become a microbiologist

I wonder how many students answered D & E?

atau dalam bahasa Indonesia: Halusinasi oke aja loh!

An article in the  latest New York Times  discussed the latest developments of psychedelic science and how tightly regulated use of hallucinogens may help in treatments of mental disorders.

What is psychedelic science?

Psychedelic science studies active ingredients that cause hallucinations. Why is microbiology involved? Well this particular article talked about a substance, psilocybin, that is produced by a basidiomycete fungi (Mushroom). Quoting the paper:

Researchers from around the world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four decades. They plan to discuss studies of psilocybin and other psychedelics for treating depression in cancer patients, obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction to drugs or alcohol.

The results so far are encouraging but also preliminary, and researchers caution against reading too much into these small-scale studies. They do not want to repeat the mistakes of the 1960s, when some scientists-turned-evangelists exaggerated their understanding of the drugs’ risks and benefits.

For my Indonesian readers, the 1960s marked an era where a lot of (American) people used mushrooms as a psychotrophic drug to get “high”. People experience hallucinations ( illusory perception; a common symptom of severe mental disorder).

Now there are studies that show how psychedelics like psilocybin can have positive effects on the user. Griffiths et al. (2008) reported that patients treated with psilocybin under supportive conditions described their experience as “personally meaningful” and “spiritually significant” in their lives.Other studies have followed.

I think what is interesting is the fact that perceptions caused by hallucination doesn’t have a negative effect afterwards. However this study didn’t mention any addiction issues that could be caused by use of this hallucinogen. The full article by Griffiths et al can be found here.

An article published in the latest edition of Nature, widely quoted by various news media,   has given me a new reason to love microbiology even more. The main findings suggest that the bacteria in the food we eat (in this case, sushi) may play an important role  in providing the gut microorganisms with enhanced capabilities for food digestion. This accomplished through horizontal gene transfer, a mechanism especially well documented in prokaryotes. You are what you eat, indeed.

What does this mean for us? Well, this is a message to continuously maintain a high level of biodiversity in the environment because it is more than likely providing us with many benefits including for our health.

For a link to the abstract of the article please click here. For the full article you need to pay for access. If you don’t feel like reading the scientific article, here are some articles:

1. BBC news: Sushi may ‘transfer genes’ to gut
   
2. The Guardian: Sushi munching bacteria found in the guts of Japanese people
3. The Scientist.com: Gut bacteria are what we eat
   

So let’s hit those sushi bars this weekend!

Great Microbiologists by http://www.brickfilms.com

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The basics of microbiology:

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Kata pak Rektor, dosen harus banyak pakai Bahasa Inggris, so sedapat mungkin saya akan bilingual. Juga karena saya telah terdaftar di researchblogging.org saya harus pakai Bahasa Inggris juga, so… posting’s gonna be a mix of two languages!

If you are a student at the Department of Biology, semester 5, this is the place for any additional material related to BIO 30270 (MIKROBIOLOGI)  and BIO 30271 (PRAKTIKUM MIKROBIOLOGI), specifically materi yang diberikan oleh ibu Sitaresmi.

 Selamat Datang, Welcome!

It’s July 14th.

Academic year starts September 1st.

So this Microbiology Teacher needs to get ready for the new semester. It is, after all, the semester for Basic Microbiology, a required class for all students at the Department. With around 80 students coming in this semester, it’s going to be chaotic.

Last year was pretty chaotic because it was a transition phase in the curriculum. Two semesters in a row pretty much burned me out.

But that’s over, and now looking forward to a new batch of students (I think). The semester will be short, and I have to leave at the end of the semester (my partner won’t be happy for sure), so I’ll need some strategies to deal with this. Have to cut some stuff.

Also need to deal with the delivery of the course. Students nowadays have such a short attention span and get easily bored (as witnessed by my evaluation, hah!). So will have to come up with new ways of delivery. Maybe through this blog?

Sebentar lagi, tahun akademik 2008/2009 akan dimulai. Berarti, kuliah mikrobiologi akan start lagi. Perlu suntikan semangat baru, karena tahun lalu sempat mengalami kejenuhan (terlihat dari EDOM saya). Perlu strategi baru, perlu buku baru (walau dengan kecepatan informasi, buku kurang banyak berguna…)

This semester I am teaching the elective course (kuliah pilihan) Environmental Microbiology (BIO 41730). The course deals with microbes in the natural environment.

We often think of microbes in the laboratory environment, the “pure culture” concept, meaning that we usually work with only one microbial culture in a “pure” form, not mixed with other microbial cultures.

In nature, microbes exist together with other organisms as part of an ecosystem. The abiotic factors determine They occupy a niche in the ecosystem, mostly as decomposers of organic matter or they could also be producers.

It is safe to say that microbes can be found everywhere: on the ground, in the water and even in the air we breathe. However, when we speak of a microbe’s natural habitats, it is slightly different. The atmosphere is not a natural habitat for microbes.

More and more research in microbial diversity nowadays come up with a variety of microbial habitats. What makes it more interesting is that exploration of microbial habitats are not limited to the terrestrial and aquatic habitats inhabited by other living organisms, they now go and beyond what is considered a “usual” environment. It does seem like “the sky is the limit” for microbial habitats. To date, microbes have been found to survive in habitats like volcano craters, hot water springs, hydrothermal vents and  arctic glaciers. Some extreme views are even entertaining the thought that maybe, just maybe, microbes can be found on other planets than the Earth, i.e, the planet Mars.

So is it possible that the microbes on earth have ‘relatives’ on other planets?

Recent research from a neighboring university has again brought attention to the issue of food product contamination, specifically in this case, baby formula. At first I thought there had been an outbreak of some sorts, but it wasn’t. It was “just” a research finding.

And yet, this particular finding sent people into panic. The thought of possibly drinking contaminated milk was so terrifying people demanded that the researchers disclose the brands that were contaminated. The media immediately did their own investigating. The Minister of Health was pressured to make a statement, and make a statement she did. Unfortunately, the comment only created another controversy and did not help with the actual issue.

But what is the actual issue?

The actual title of the study was Potensi Kejadian Meningitis Pada Neonatus Akibat Infeksi Enterobacter sakazakii Yang Diisolasi Dari Makanan Dan Susu Bayi. The team from Faculty of Veterinary Medicine analyzed 22 samples of baby formula and 15 samples of baby food and found that 22,73% of the baby formula samples and 40% of the baby food samples were contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii. Google the bacterium name and you will find 516,000 references on Enterobacter sakazakii. The bacterium is known to cause neonatal meningitis. Gurtler et al. (2005) wrote that the first cases of neonatal meningitis believed to be caused by Enterobacter sakazakii were first reported in 1961 and research on this bacteria remains active until now. Kim and Park (2007) is just one of the recent publications.

Whenever we read about these research findings, we should keep in mind the original objective of the research. Topic wise, the research carried out by Estuningsih et al. was not really new, meaning that there are already many published research on Enterobacter sakazakii. Dr. Estuningsih herself has been actively researching this for awhile. So why is it now that the findings created a widespread panic? When there have not been any reported cases of bacterial meningitis caused by E.sakazakii in Indonesia?

Blame the sensationalist Indonesian media, I think, especially since the airing a certain program on one TV station that dedicates its content to the sleazy work of food tampering of basically every edible known to man. Now, I don’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to this research finding, absolutely not. However, I believe that the findings of Estuningsih et al. were not meant to be an investigative report on the quality of baby formula in Indonesia and the poor conditions of food safety in Indonesia. She is a researcher on E. sakazakii and the team is reporting on potential effects of a local E. sakazakii strain found in baby food and baby formula. I should also mention that the findings also mentioned the need for more research to support the findings and not a recall of certain brands of baby formula and baby food. That was not the original objective. And in my scientific opinion, the Indonesian media has somewhat twisted the original objective and turned it into a national scare. Of course, the Minister of Health’s comment was unwarranted and totally unbecoming for a professor of medicine. But, to be fair, sometimes the media likes to take comments out of context. But if I may ask Madam Minister, maybe a neutral “we are looking into it” type of comment would be more appropriate?

The governing body on food safety, The National Agency of Food and Drug Control has already issued a statement about the issue of Enterobacter sakazakii in baby formula. It may not be enough for our already semi-paranoid society which is too bad. Irrational behavior can have damaging effects in the long run. Do we want to deal with baby food manufacturers lay offs if there is a drop in productions? The socio economic aspect is often forgotten in all the uproar.

Yes, we should all be more careful and vigilant on everything that goes into our bodies. We should prepare food and drink properly, keeping the universal precautions in mind. Always boil water at 100 degrees for at least 2-3 minutes after boiling to kill vegetative bacterial cells. Awareness and education is the key, not spreading panic!

References quoted:

Gurtler JB, Kornacki JL, Beuchat LR. 2005. Enterobacter sakazakii: a coliform of increased concern to infant health. Int J Food Microbiol. 2005 Sep 25;104(1):1-34.

Kim SH, Park JH. 2007. Thermal resistance and inactivation of Enterobacter sakazakii isolates during rehydration of powdered infant formula. J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2007 Feb;17(2):364-8.