Germs

It's been nine years since a high school intern at the University of Illinois dared question pop-culture convention and test the so-called "five-second rule" - the one that says if food or utensils have been on the floor or ground for five seconds or less, they're probably safe from unseen ick. That test found, however, that even after just a second or two, food on the floor can pick up thousands of potentially unfriendly germs. Ever since, dozens of doctors and scientists have argued - on both sides - that the five-second rule is misguided.

Aimee Copeland, a Georgia grad student, is fighting for her life because of the flesh-eating bacteria that infected her after she gashed her leg in a river two weeks ago. One of her legs was amputated and her fingers will be too, her father says, because of the spreading infection. She has a rare condition, called necrotizing fasciitis, in which marauding bacteria run rampant through tissue. Affected areas sometimes have to be surgically removed to save the patient's life. HOW OFTEN DO PEOPLE GET THESE INFECTIONS?

Monday's question , from a SAHM LW who was P'Od at her SIL for bringing her children over when they were sick, sparked some great discussion! (As did Wednesday's conversation about etiquette between parents. I think from now on, I may try to keep the Wednesday conversation directly related to the Monday question. Did that work for all of you?)  There were a lot of layers to the letter. Sticking with the most basic etiquette question, ItDoesntMatterWhatIThink offered some straightforward advice, and owes me a new keyboard for the first line:  So this may seem...

For years, doctors and researchers have made a seemingly paradoxical observation: as people have grown up in cleaner and more sterile environments, allergies, asthma, and other inflammatory diseases have increased. Now, an international team headed by scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital has found support for this "hygiene hypothesis" and one possible biological explanation that could underlie the intriguing phenomenon. The researchers used a simple experiment with laboratory mice to strip away many of the complexities that arise when trying to compare differences among human beings who...

CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO - Dangerous staph bacteria have been found in sand and water for the first time at five public beaches along the coast of Washington, and scientists think the state is not the only one with the problem. The germ MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was once rarely seen outside of hospitals but increasingly is spreading elsewhere. The germ, which causes skin infections as well as pneumonia, is spread through human contact. MICHIGAN Shooting suspect injures self in jail OWOSSO - A man accused of fatally shooting an abortion...

The problem with rock 'n' roll biopics is that they all tell the same story. The early enthusiasm, the big break, the hits, simulated or lip-synched. Then the arrogance and alcohol and drugs and loose women, followed by (A) penitence and comeback or (B) the fatal speedball and pop martyrdom. These are stations of a post-Elvis cross, and for the cliches to have meaning either you have to be a hardcore fan or the director has to be an artist. "What We Do Is Secret," about the pioneering Los Angeles punk band the Germs, is one for the fans, even though writer-director Rodger...

WASHINGTON -- The value of freely sharing data on dangerous germs so that vaccines and treatments can be developed outweighs the danger that bioterrorists may use the information to do harm, a scientific panel concluded yesterday. Scientists and policy-makers have struggled to balance the needs of researchers for all available information with worries their work might somehow be turned against the public. That concern has increased since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But times have changed since the World War II secrecy dictum that "loose lips sink ships.

With all the wet weather we've been having, many outdoor fitness buffs may be heading back to their gyms for exercise - just in time for cold and flu season. Viruses and bacteria can lurk for hours on the handles of crosstrainers and weight machines. "You can pick up an infection at the gym, just like you can get infected on the T," said Bill Hanage, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. Norovirus - which Hanage calls "winter vomiting disease" - can also make its rounds at fitness facilities during winter months.

WASHINGTON -- Inhaling a saltwater aerosol, a treatment often used for asthma, may also reduce the distribution of germs that can spread disease, according to a new report. People suffering from a variety of illnesses exhale bacteria and viruses that can spread disease. A small study involving 11 people found that about half of them exhaled much larger amounts of germs than the others. For those people the saltwater treatment reduced the viruses or bacteria being exhaled for six hours.

WASHINGTON — Antibiotics can temporarily upset your stomach, but now it turns out that repeatedly taking them can trigger long-lasting changes in all those good germs that live in your gut, raising questions about lingering ill effects. Nobody knows if that leads to health problems later. But the finding is the latest in a flurry of research raising questions about how the customized bacterial zoo that thrives in our intestines forms — and whether the wrong type or amount plays a role in ailments from obesity to inflammatory bowel disease to asthma.

It's been nine years since a high school intern at the University of Illinois dared question pop-culture convention and test the so-called "five-second rule" - the one that says if food or utensils have been on the floor or ground for five seconds or less, they're probably safe from unseen ick. That test found, however, that even after just a second or two, food on the floor can pick up thousands of potentially unfriendly germs. Ever since, dozens of doctors and scientists have argued - on both sides - that the five-second rule is misguided.

It's been nine years since a high school intern at the University of Illinois dared question pop-culture convention and test the so-called "five-second rule" - the one that says if food or utensils have been on the floor or ground for five seconds or less, they're probably safe from unseen ick. That test found, however, that even after just a second or two, food on the floor can pick up thousands of potentially unfriendly germs. Ever since, dozens of doctors and scientists have argued - on both sides - that the five-second rule is misguided.

A life-threatening germ that causes diarrhea and spreads easily from doctors' offices to hospitals and nursing homes has climbed to historic highs nationally, federal disease trackers warned Tuesday, as they pointed to efforts in Massachusetts that have helped slow the rate of infections here. The Clostridium difficile bacteria, also known as C. difficile, is linked to about 14,000 deaths a year nationwide, and the number of hospitalized patients with a C. difficile-related diagnosis more than doubled between 2000 and 2009, from approximately 139,000 to...

A long-awaited hearing for the public to comment on the latest safety report for Boston University's controversial high-security research laboratory has been scheduled for April 19, federal officials said yesterday. Those officials also released a 23-page reader's guide to the 1,756-page safety document, saying they hoped it would make the massive report more accessible to the public. The guide is a synopsis of the potential risks to the public if a potentially lethal germ studied by scientists at the lab were to accidentally escape.

Massachusetts health officials said today that there was no brucellosis found at a Western Massachusetts dairy farm where raw milk sales were abruptly halted last week because the farm's owner was thought to be infected with the rare germ. Brucellosis is an infectious disease passed primarily between animals, but it can be acquired by humans through the consumption of raw milk. Robert Kilmer,cq owner of Twin Rivers Farmcq in Ashley Falls, had notified officials last week that a preliminary test by his doctor was positive for brucellosis, an infection that starts...

An independent scientific panel advising the federal government on Boston University's controversial high-security research laboratory has concluded that the latest federal assessment of safety risks posed by the infectious-disease lab is significantly improved and nearly ready for public comment. In a report made public today, the scientists noted several areas of concern that still need addressing, but said the 1,700-page federal safety assessment was on solid ground and the independent panel's oversight was no longer needed.

It's been nine years since a high school intern at the University of Illinois dared question pop-culture convention and test the so-called "five-second rule" - the one that says if food or utensils have been on the floor or ground for five seconds or less, they're probably safe from unseen ick. That test found, however, that even after just a second or two, food on the floor can pick up thousands of potentially unfriendly germs. Ever since, dozens of doctors and scientists have argued - on both sides - that the five-second rule is misguided.

With all the wet weather we've been having, many outdoor fitness buffs may be heading back to their gyms for exercise - just in time for cold and flu season. Viruses and bacteria can lurk for hours on the handles of crosstrainers and weight machines. "You can pick up an infection at the gym, just like you can get infected on the T," said Bill Hanage, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. Norovirus - which Hanage calls "winter vomiting disease" - can also make its rounds at fitness facilities during winter months.