Not for the faint of heart. But this is an important article and worth a look: Hunting a Killer: Sex, Drugs and the Return of Syphilis – The New York Times In the article, Jan Hoffman discussed the “return of symphilis” – that is, how syphilis has been undergoing an increase in the number of outbreaks …
What does a robin have to do with fighting the next pandemic. No, this is not about weird viruses in birds (though I am sure there are some). This is about a Field Guide to the Microbes. I am writing about this topic because I got pointed to a interesting blog post by a tweet …
Quick post here. This is definitely worth a look for those interested in hospital acquired infections, microbial genomics, and genomic epidemiology or related topics. LivaNova plant in Germany is the likely source behind outbreak that has sickened more than 100 people since 2013. Source: DNA Links Deadly Germs, Tainted Heart Surgery Devices To German Factory …
A University of Washington study found surgeons in the nude shed ‘significantly less bacteria than those wearing scrubs’, but admitted it was not likely to ever happen. So – this DailyMail story certainly has a catchy headline: Surgeons can stop spread of germs by operating NAKED | Daily Mail Online. Alas, the story is seriously …
Lots of news stories about a new paper from Jack Gilbert, Simon Lax, and many others on results of their “Hospital Microbiome” study. I apologize that, since I am co-running a conference for the next two days I just have not had time to read all these stories and the paper and thus do not yet …
OK. So money has microbes on it. Not surprising. And when people find out such information they frequently go overboard in the germophobia. See for example these stories from over the years 1999: Filthy Lucre – Paper Money As A Vector Of Disease 2010: Dirty money 1: Expect germs 2010: How Bad Are Germs on Money 2012: …
Sorry for the headline here but when I saw this news story (British scientists survey infectious bacteria by having people walk outside in socks – The Washington Post). I just could not get Mr. Rogers’ “Who are the people in your neighborhood” out of my head. But with the “people” replaced by “microbes”. Why did this …
Quick post here just to alert people to this story about a drug resistant Candida auris fungus variety showing up more and more. Of relevance to the microbiology of the built environment crowd is the following quote: The fungus can be passed between people or through the environment from such things as hospital equipment, says Dr. Tom …
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 …
This paper may be of interest to some. Basically, the authors compared Salmonella levels in outdoor vs. indoor housing for chickens. The main push behind this appears to be the growing trend for having more outdoor housing for chickens and the question of whether or not that leads to higher levels of pathogens. See …