E-Borne Newsletter : Spring, 2004
Roger P. Freeman, D.D.S., Editor Roger@iAwareables.com
Dear friends and colleagues,
Welcome to IA's SPRING pathogenic Pulitzer. Consider this edition a compassionate quarantine from the current political micro-babble. Reading about disease just HAS to be more fun than all the hot-airborne transmission. Maybe the monarchy thing’s not such a bad idea…...
Note: We mail this occasionally quarterly newsletter to friends, colleagues and customers of record. If we have mistakenly included you in this mailing, and you wish to be removed from our subscriber list, please refer to end of the newsletter for instructions. We'll miss you, but we promise to honor your request.
Pathogenic Preview:
- NATIONAL NOSOCOMIAL (NOSOWHATIAL?) INFECTION SURVEY
- MORE OF THE SAME
- WHO' YOU CALLING DISGUSTING?
- SCUM BY ANY OTHER NAME
- CAULIFLOWER EARS
- CONFERENCE UPDATES – Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, D.C.
- LOOMING AND LOVELY- The Nile, the Cow, and the return of the remissionaries.
1. NATIONAL NOSOCOMIAL (NOSOWHATIAL?) INFECTION SURVEILLANCE
Many of our zillions of Aware-o-philes are in the health sciences, healing arts or just out of work. So the term "nosocomial" isn't as scary as it sounds to, say, a lawyer. For the civilians among us, nosocomial basically means... going into the hospital for one thing, coming out (or not) with something you didn't bargain for! The CDC regularly runs the numbers on rates of these little surprises. Here's a sampling of annual figures, thru 6/03:
700,000 (2.6%) un-awareables will suffer surgical infections. This is conservative. Other studies indicate a range of 4-11%. Median hospital stays can increase 4-22 days over the uninfected. Median cost increases range from $2700-$11,000.
And this is in the U.S.! So if you're thinking about that surgical cruise, or that jungle "lift," you may want to check out the local infectometer first.
Soboring: it's estimated that 80% of patients at Baghdad's Central Teaching Hospital for Children leave with infections not on board when they arrived.
2. MORE NNIS
The majority of NC infections are caused by Staph and Enterococci. The rates of resistance to these criminals - even to the mega-biotics - continues to grow. Unsolicited advice to the unwary: don't grind your MD to prescribe antibiotics. Au contraire, question the need and rationale every time they are recommended. The main deal: you want them to work for you and yours when they are absolutely needed!
3. DISGUSTO-STATS
A team of researchers from the London School of Tropical Medicine conducted an international study (why?) on what really "disgusts" people. A follow up study was then done by the BBC asking folks to rank disgusting pictures on a scale from one(not)to five (major yuk). The results: Wow! in both studies, people found disgusting things,...well, ...disgusting!! Body fluids, lice, festerati, colorful repugnatia...all evoked what may be "a very ancient emotion, one that evolved with us to give us an instinct to avoid disease." Whatta shock! The pound sterling at work, folks!
Note: The Australians were statistically the most "yuck-resistant" to gross out. (Put another WHAT on the barbie?)
4. UH-UH, NOT MINE...
Your shower curtain is likely teeming up with some bacterial opportunists capable of infecting wounds or sickening the immunosupressed or elderly. A U. of Colorado microbiologist has studied this problem, and discovered that taking a shower aerosolizes the scumbags, engulfing the unwary in bacteria. He strongly suggests washing the curtain every few weeks. Probably good to know. Maybe that's what got into the football coach...
5. I USTA BE A CONTENDA
Piercing the upper ear (cartilagenous part) has lead to a number of infections in kids from ages 10-19, a group of whom had their ears poked recently in a jewelry kiosk in Oregon. Pseudomonas aeroginosa, a common street-smart bug, turned out to be the villain, leaving four patients "cosmetically deformed" Apparently, antibiotics do not work well on the poorly vascularized cartilage, blocking the get-well juice from its target. Obvious lesson (we guess): pierce something soft. Ouch.
6. CONFERENCE REPORT 2004
On the calendar so far: March, Chicago, PittCon (Analytical Chemistry), followed by (NSTA) National Science Teacher's Association, Atlanta. ASM (Microbiology) May, New Orleans. ICAAC(Chemotherapy) and APHA (Public Health) in Washington, D.C. Oct-November.
Got some suggestions for September? Shoot them our way. (Size matters: req. 7-8000 attendees minimum.)
7. LOOMING AND LOVELY...
- West Nile Virus: flying in by tax time.
- Mad Cow (Prions): ground & chucked by mid-May.
- Dental Plaque redux: new and periodontally potent. Brush up in June!
- Current remissions: many of the perennial favs will be back and beautiful.
- Other surprises too pandemic to disclose!
Spring is sprung – and, oh goodie - all your closely held allergies are just around the corner. Keep your pollen dry ...
Awareably yours until SFP Season,
RPF
Roger P. Freeman, D.D.S., and THE IA TEAM
