Backyard chicken coops are on the rise and in many ways that is a good thing. However, one negative with this is that some chickens can carry various microbes that can make people sick and sometimes those microbes get to people and make them sick. CNN has a new story on the topic that may …
Epidemiological and other studies have shown that, on average, having a dog is correlated to some possible health benefits (e.g., see this). And some studies have further suggested that this might be connected to “the microbiome” in that having a dog might change the microbiome of one’s surroundings and that this in turn might contribute …
Well, I confess, I am still a bit skeptical of the utility of the “germ fighting robots” of various kinds that keep getting promoted as being useful at various health care facilities. There was a story published today in our local major paper – the Sacramento Bee that discusses this topic. Germs that cause hospital-acquired infections …
A recent Slate article by Jonathan Katz talks about a map that is displayed at the CDC – as well as the heavy implications of this map. Despite genomic evidence that the UN peacekeepers were the source of cholera in earthquake-devastated Haiti, the CDC and the UN continue to avoid accountability. UN peacekeepers from Nepal failed to set up …
There is a new report out Tuesday from the CDC National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). It is an update of a report issued on February 10, 2016. Alex Alexiev wrote about this error in a microBEnet post: CDC Error in Flooring Report. For more on the corrected report …
There are a bunch of stories starting to come out based on some press and paper releases from the CDC yesterday. One that seems well done is this from CIDRAP: CDC notes progress, threat regarding hospital superbugs | CIDRAP. Today’s CDC report focused on the six most concerning antibiotic-resistant bacteria and found better progress against them …
The CDC recently had to correct an error in a flooring report – it was a silly calculation error that we have all made before, but that had a huge outcome. They forgot to convert feet to meters in their report, meaning they severely underestimated health risks related to formaldehyde in laminate flooring. The risks are …
Just got this email letter from the American Society for Microbiology and I thought it would be useful and important to share. Please – everyone out there doing work involving potential harmful microbes – redouble your efforts to do that work as safely as possible. And also consider careful the risk – benefit balance for the …
Just discovered this site from the CDC dedicated to information about Helthcare Associated Infections: Healthcare-associated infections | HAI | CDC. It has a great collection of links and resources including links to data, research, prevention methods, and more. Definitely worth checking out if you have any interest in HAIs or hospital associated microbes.