microBEnet Microbiology blog of the day: Crof’s H5N1 from Crawford Kilian

Going through the list of Microbiology Blogs we have curated at microBEnet and going to try to feature one of them every day or so.  And just going to do this in semi-alphabetic order. Today’s blog:  Crof’s H5N1 Author:  Crawford Kilian Tagline/Summary: “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large …

microBEnet Microbiology blog of the day: Body Horrors

Going through the list of Microbiology Blogs we have curated at microBEnet and going to try to feature one of them every day or so.  And just going to do this in semi-alphabetic order. Today’s blog: Body Horrors Author: Rebecca Kreston Tagline/Summary: Body Horrors is a blog started in February 2011 which aims to explore the intersection of infectious diseases, …

Meningitis/steroid case highlights desperate need for more studies of microbiology of the built environment

Well, the meningitis outbreak tied to steroid injections gets scarier and scarier by the day: Poor Sanitation Found at Pharmacy Linked to Meningitis Outbreak – NYTimes.com.  One of the latest pieces of news is that the pharmacy that was “compounding” the steroids for injection appears to have been a “microbiology of the built environment” nightmare.  Some …

Follow up to post about hospital garb & microbes: overworking nurses not a good idea

Interesting article on the possible connection between overworked/burned out nurses and hospital acquired infections: Burned-out nurses linked to more infections in patients – Vitals. Not clear whether any type of causal relationship was established here (though I doubt it).  But nevertheless, this is yet another factor to consider when thinking about the transmission of microbes in …