Master’s Thesis of Possible Interest: role of hospital toilets in microbial dissemination & the effectiveness of UV C 

Just got notified of this via some automated Google Scholar searchers and it seems like it might be of interest: Source: The role of hospital toilets in microbial dissemination and the effectiveness of ultraviolet C irradiation – UBC Library Open Collections Master’s thesis by Jesse Cooper from UBC.   See some discussion of this on …

This story about naked surgery has no clothes …

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 …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, April 23, 2017

Catching up after a couple of busy weeks. Microbes in the hospital Diversity changes of microbial communities into hospital surface environments – Rika Yano – Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy ($31.50)  Previous works have demonstrated considerable variability in hospital cleanliness in Japan, suggesting that contamination is driven by factors that are currently poorly controlled. We undertook 16S …

A sinking feeling: misleading headline but interesting paper on tracking spread of microbes in sinks

There is an interesting new paper out of interest.  I found out about this through Twitter Study reports multidrug resistant #bacteria found in #hospital sinks – New research in @ASMicrobiology‘s #AEM https://t.co/0i7GKoPmUE pic.twitter.com/ZM9gAavL2t — ASM Newsroom (@ASMnewsroom) February 24, 2017   Now this caught my attention because it seemed to be about, well, multidrug resistant …

Ants as (Possible) Vectors of Bacteria in Hospital Environments

Not really sure what to think about this article:  Ants as Vectors of Bacteria in Hospital Environments. Published in the Journal of Microbiology Research and authored by Bruna Rafaela Machado Oliveira, Luciano Ferreira de Sousa, Raquel Chalá Soares, Thiago César Nascimento, Marcelo Silva Madureira, Jorge Luiz Fortuna. In a quick scan the science seems reasonable. …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, January 21, 2017

  Microbes in the house and office A survey of xerophilic Aspergillus from indoor environment, including descriptions of two new section Aspergillus species producing eurotium-like sexual states – Cobus M. Visagie – MycoKeys (OA) Xerophilic fungi grow at low water activity or low equilibrium relative humidity and are an important part of the indoor fungal …

The concept of hygiene and the human microbiome.

(This post was written by Roo Vandegrift at the University of Oregon) I was recently asked to spearhead the writing of a review centered around the interaction between the concept of hygiene and our increasingly nuanced understanding of the human skin microbiome for the Biology and the Built Environment (BioBE) Center at the University of …

A must read from Reuters on the closed access world of superbug infections #terrifying

Vague rules give healthcare providers leeway in deciding when, or even whether, to report clusters of infections. And when they do, the public rarely knows. This is a really really big deal. We desperately need to be more open about antibiotic resistant bugs and any outbreaks of them.  Kudos to Reuters and Deborah J. Nelson, David Rohde, …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, December 3, 2016

Microbes and money Dirty Money: A Matter of Bacterial Survival, Adherence, and Toxicity – Frank Vriesekoop – Microorganisms (OA) In this study we report the underlying reasons to why bacteria are present on banknotes and coins. (…) We treated the various currencies used in this study as microcosms, and the bacterial loading from human hands as …