New papers from the past week on the interactions between humans, buildings, and microbes. Microbes in buildings Comprehensive analysis of the skin fungal microbiota of astronauts during a half-year stay at the International Space Station – Takashi Sugita – Medical Mycology ($$) The International Space Station (ISS) is a huge manned construct located approximately 400 km …
Think hotel rooms are gross? An elegant study led by Jack Gilbert, published Thursday in Science Reports, suggests that our resident microbes could help ease our minds on this issue, as they very quickly populate hotel rooms (and houses, more on that below) to make our hotels microbiologically identical to our homes within 24 hours. …
Quick update: A few days ago I wrote about a Legionnaires outbreak in Chicago at the Marrioott hotel: Time for hotels to start surveying their microbes. CNN is reporting that the hotel has identified a putative source for the Legionella bacterium that causes Legionnaires: the fountain in the lobby and/or a spa: Chicago hotel shuts fountain, …
Well, I wonder if this will get Marriott Corporation more involved in microbial studies in the indoor environment: Legionnaires’ disease outbreak kills 2 at Chicago hotel – CNN.com. Seems that there has been Legionella lurking around somewhere in the JW Marriott hotel in Chicago. The outbreak has led the hotel to drain all major standing water …
CBC Radio has a podcast on the “hotel microbe” story that was all the buzz at the #ASM2012 meeting last week: Hotel Rooms and Bacteria. I note – I was interviewed by Michael about this but am traveling and have not been able to listen to the podcast as of yet so listen at your own …
Interesting video from ASM Live about a project sampling for microbes in hotel rooms. Featuring Katie Kirsch from the University of Houston and Jonathan Eisen from UC Davis.
Some news agencies have recently been reporting that bedbugs may be doing something even more unpleasant than their normal unpleasantries. Many news sources are reporting on recent information from a Canadian group that looked at what microbes were found in bedbugs in one area. And what they found was pretty nasty. Basically, the deal is …