Of Germs and Men

I am still busily at work on my Halloween props and decorations so there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging. The body count is rising and there currently are three (possibly soon to be four) groundbreaking corpses and one autopsy torso residing in my garage. They will be painted and dressed in the next day or so then I'll be able to move on to the electric chair.

So anyway, speaking of making monsters and corpses, let's talk about something that can make you dead (how's that for a segue?). I read an article this morning that I thought I'd share. One of my pet peeves is the over-prescribing and general lack of education on the use of antibiotics. This leads to the individual taking longer to get well but more importantly, it creates antibiotic resistant bacteria (this process by the way is a directly observable example of natural selection in action). Add to that our infatuation with everything "antibacterial" and you have a recipe for "The Superbug that Ate Mississippi". Years ago I worked in a biological containment laboratory with some really nasty stuff like Anthrax and worse. We had to take a shower before we left the lab. Even in that setting we did not use antibacterials. Plain old Dial soap and hot water. It works just fine.

There was a report last week about methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the fact that it kills more than 18,000 people a year. While Staph is all over the place most of those cases acquired the infection in healthcare setting (hospitals, the WORST place to be when you're sick). MSRA also turns up in places like gyms, locker rooms, and schools. You may recall that I spent several hours recently with my daughter in the emergency room - no wonder I felt like showering when I got home. Ick.

Here's the article I mentioned. It's from Newsweek and it's titled Caution: Killing Germs May Be Hazardous to Your Health. One more example of us screwing with the environment. Just something to think about.