bacteria

Women's health
Roughly 1 in 3 women douche, but there is no good health reason to do so. Douching can change the makeup of the bacteria that normally live in the vagina, and it can even make women more susceptible to STDs. Now, researchers have added another concern: Douching appears to increase the risk of infection with HPV (human papillomavirus), which causes cervical cancer. 
When I was still in school, the rule-of-thumb for the human microbiome was that bacteria outnumbered human cells 10-to-1. Not so, say the authors of a new PLoS Biology paper, who re-crunched the numbers. According to their estimate, the ratio is much closer to 1-to-1.
An emerging infectious disease that has killed several elderly people in the U.S. Midwest is caused by the bacterium Elizabethkingia anophelis. A genomic analysis of strains isolated from hospitalized babies in Africa show that they are related to strains in Asia and from mosquitoes. This ubiquitous environmental bacterium is resistant to multiple antibiotics and appears to survive in hospitals.
A new nanostructured material selectively destroys bacteria, while leaving eukaryotic cells alone. Antibacterial surfaces such as this are needed for medical devices.
Unwanted microorganisms are a fact of life. Bugs grow everywhere we don't want them, from our showers and sinks to our toilets and toothbrushes. The scummy layers they form, called biofilms, are ugly and disgusting but mostly harmless in these settings. However, when they form on medical devices, such as catheters and implants, they can be life-threatening. A clever new material may prevent that.
What happens when we die? This question is both existential and biological. While scientists cannot address the first, they certainly can address the second. What happens to your body after you die is not pretty. Alas, there is no such thing as death with dignity when the microbial Grim Reaper arrives.
There's a silly article in Wednesday's Washington Post which suggests that you're better off eating your hideous airplane meal while sitting on the toilet, rather than in your seat using the tray table. It's not just silly. It's scientifically impossible.
It s summer time and the living s easy. Time to fire up the BBQ, pull the summer clothes down from the attic (hopefully they still fit) and relax around the pool and if we are talking pools, than we also have to talk about chlorine. Chlorine and pools go hand in hand. Any pool owner will tell you that keeping your chlorine levels (a
Hospital-acquired infections are a major public health concern the risk of getting an infection while in the hospital is roughly 1 in 20. They are also an especially substantial burden because they are often difficult to treat due to their antibiotic resistance (therefore being dubbed superbugs). Just a few of these bacteria include MRSA, VRE, and CRE, which the CDC refers to as nightmare bacteria.
ACSH advisor Dr. David Shlaes, a world-renowned expert on antibiotics and the bacteria that are increasingly resistant to them, encourages all of us to watch Frontline tonight at 10 EST. They are covering a topic that you
Dr. A. Zuger's NYTimes column presents an excellent discussion of penicillin allergies, both real, exaggerated, and severe and how to deal with them.