In a continually frightening trend, the stinky but otherwise innocuous Clostridium Difficile has now mutated into an antibiotic resistant superbug. Bacteria can transmit antibiotic resistance to completely different strains of bacteria via plasmid transfer - basically a small tube that two bacteria hook up with to swap rna/dna. This is like your dog transferring the ability to bark to your cat. It's only going to get worse as populations increase, antibiotics are force fed to animals living in their own waste before being fed to us, and people being kept alive in conditions no sane God would condone.
Alcohol gels used by medical staff to clean their hands between patients, in an attempt to combat MRSA, are ineffective against the spores of C. difficile. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said washing in soap and water was necessary to eliminate the bug and powerful disinfectants were needed instead of ordinary detergents to clean the wards.
Not good news for me since I use the gels every time I get into my car after leaving another one of these run down nursing homes. I think I'll start gloving up before I open the door from now on.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
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