Yes, there has been a recall of Salmonella-tainted eggs (half a billion eggs and counting) that have sickened almost 2000 individuals. The eggs were produced in what seems to be a Mega Chicken Coop created from rows of windowless factory buildings in Iowa. That chickens may have salmonella in this setting should not shock you. The [...]
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One million pounds of ground beef are being recalled due potential contamination with E. coli O157:H7. Approximately, 7 people have fallen ill so far. The reason why ground beef is so problematic is that people do not fully cook their ground beef. The bacteria present on the side of beef after processing gets ground into the [...]
Are we creating monsters in real life? I think so. However, we seem to be fairly oblivious to the fact that they are out there and becoming more dangerous. Last week we discussed the dramatically higher incidence of VRE in Sweden. Today there is a report out from the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) [...]
Enterococci are normal gut flora that are found in most humans. The two major species that live in and effect humans are Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium (the species name gives you some idea of where and how they are distributed as well). A recent report out of Sweden is describing the growing incidence of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) [...]
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There are recent reports out about an outbreak of meningitis in a school district in Oklahoma. Why this hasn’t made national news is that the infections have been verified to be viral meningitis. Viral meningitis (also called aseptic meningitis ) is caused predominantly in the US by enteroviruses. These viruses can be spread via respiratory secretions [...]
You know it is bad when even the New York Times is discussing antibiotic resistance. How bad is it? From this NYTs report, it appears that gram negative organisms are vying to replace MRSA (a gram positive bacteria) on the list of the biggest problems in the world of antibiotic resistance. One of the organisms discussed, Acinetobacter baumannii [...]
Continue reading about Attack of the Superbugs- Gram negatives