Bursting Bug

An antibiotic does it in

Is it Mount St. Helens finally erupting after weeks of ominous activity? A booby-trapped pineapple in the act of blowing up? In fact the remarkable photograph released by the microbiology laboratories of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York City shows a bacterium literally exploding after getting a dose of antibiotic.

Shown magnified 150,000 times, the staphylococcus bacterium was exposed to a low-level dose of antibiotic. As a result, the wall of the one-celled bug began eroding. That process poses a great danger to the bacterium, which has internal pressures ranging from 25 to 30 atmospheres. Strained by the internal pressure, the wall suddenly ruptured at its weakest point, and the bacterium exploded.

The phenomenon shown in this "pretty picture," says Dr. Victor Lorian, the center's chief of microbiology and epidemiology, occurs only when low doses of antibiotic are administered. At higher levels, like those usually given to patients, the results are even more catastrophic --for the bacterium. The cell wall disintegrates so rapidly and uniformly that there is no explosion.

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