How important is hand-washing outside of a hospital environment?

I recently spent a weekend visiting a friend out of state and quickly came to realize that he rarely washed his hands. Before eating? No. After the gym? No. Even after going to the bathroom…and not just urination. No washing! I was disgusted and could not convince him of the same. How could an educated …

A new, and scary, fungus among us #MoBE #Candida

Fascinating, scary and really important read from Maryn McKenna in Wired: The Strange and Curious Case of the Deadly Superbug Yeast By the normal standards of outbreak, Candida auris signals a mind-bending shift—and it’s forcing researchers draw on some of medicine’s oldest practices to rethink treatment.   The article tells the tale of Candida auris a fungus that …

New Release! Infectious Diseases in the Urban Built Environment Proceedings of a Workshop

On June 8, the National Academies Press released a proceedings of a workshop on Urbanization and Slums: Infectious Diseases in the Built Environment, available for free download here. The workshop rapporteurs have prepared this proceedings as a factual summation of the sessions presented by the National Academies’ Forum on Microbial Threats, in collaboration with the Board …

NIAID seeks comments and suggestions on Tuberculosis Strategic Plan #TB #Pathogens

NIH/NIAID is seeking comments on their recently released Tuberculosis Strategic Command. See: NIAID Tuberculosis Strategic Plan Request for Information (RFI) I have copied the announcement from the release below: ——————————————— NIAID Tuberculosis Strategic Plan Request for Information (RFI) Purpose This Notice is a time-sensitive Request for Information (RFI) inviting comments and suggestions on the framework …

New report from NASEM: If Misused, Synthetic Biology Could Expand the Possibility of Creating New Weapons

New report on Synthetic Biology from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that may be of interest. Synthetic biology expands the possibilities for creating new weapons — including making existing bacteria and viruses more harmful — while decreasing the time required to engineer such organisms, concludes a new report by the National Academies …

Toothbrushes and using them might reduce hospital acquired pneumonia

Well this certainly caught my attention.  A friend and colleague Tara Smith posted this link to Facebook: Sutter Medical Center cut pneumonia by 70%. The key? 50,000 toothbrushes. | Advisory Board Daily Briefing So I went to the site and found some very interesting details including: Pneumonia typically is contracted from germs that enter the body …

Provisional Committee Announced: Management of Legionella in Water Systems

Legionella is a bacterium found in drinking water distributions systems, as well as premise plumbing, hot tubs, hot water heaters, cooling towers, and other building water systems. At high enough concentrations and when inhaled, Legionella can cause Legionnaires’ disease and Pontiac fever, the former of which can be fatal if infected people are not treated …

Shelly Miller-MoBE 2017

Shelly Miller gives an interesting talk about “Building Engineering Controls for Improving Occupant Health: Mitigating Airborne Particles, Toxic Gases, and Infectious Aerosols.” This was recorded at the MoBE 2017 symposium in Washington D.C. If you’re interested, check out all of the other speakers from MoBE 2017 on our YouTube channel!