Good Grief!! Now The Cockroach Is The GOOD Guy?

In the battle against drug-resistant bacterial infections, researchers have identified two possible, if unlikely, allies: cockroaches and locusts.

Cockroaches, widely considered a public health menace, were documented carrying almost two dozen pathogens that can infect humans by researchers in 1991. Locusts, meanwhile, are associated with a different sort of plague, as their crop-devouring swarms earned them a place in the Bible.

But hidden in the brains and neural tissues of these insects, British researchers have found at least nine molecules that are toxic to bacteria. In fact, the molecules were able to kill more than 90 percent of the meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in the lab.

Infections by both bacteria can have deadly consequences. MRSA causes serious staph infections that resist treatment and can lead to serious complications, organ failure and even death. Meanwhile, E.coli lives in our intestines, and is mostly harmless, but certain strains can cause an infection linked to kidney failure and even death, according to the National Institutes of Health. Antibiotic resistance has also been documented among certain types of E. coli.

The bacteria-busting compounds in the pests' brains could lead to a new way to fight off these ultra-resistant pathogens.

"We hope that these molecules could eventually be developed into treatments for E. coli and MRSA infections that are increasingly resistant to current drugs," said study team member Simon Lee, a postgraduate researcher at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham in England.

Because the molecules did not appear to harm human cells in tests run by the researchers, they could potentially lead to new antibiotics without the unwanted side effects of drugs currently in use, Lee said.

Insects often live in unsanitary conditions, so it is not surprising that they produce their own antimicrobial compounds, Lee said.

Lee presented his work at the Society for General Microbiology's fall meeting in Nottingham this week.

www.yahoo.com

Frog Skins Might Cure Diseases

WASHINGTON - The cure for drug-resistant infections, like flesh-eating bacteria, may be coming. The silver bullet? Green skin.

There are compounds in frog skins that could be used to fight MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant diseases.

Dr. Michael Conlon recently told the American Chemical Society that biochemists at United Arab Emirates University have found a way to tweak the molecular structure of the strong natural antibiotics on frog skin that makes them less toxic to humans.

Researchers say they have identified and purified the chemical structure of about 200 substances -- a treasure trove of antibiotics just waiting to be used.

One has already been found to be effective against "Iraqi-bacter," a drug-resistant infection turning up in wounded soldiers returning home from Iraq.

Conlon says it's important to preserve the bio-diversity of frogs. He says scientists are just scratching the surface of the potential antibiotics that could be found in more than 6,000 species of frogs.

www.wtop.com

I wonder what Kermit is thinking about this?

Take Precautions/Use Common Sense When Swimming In the Chesapeake Bay

High temperatures and pollution have made conditions ripe for a potentially dangerous bacteria carried in Chesapeake Bay waters, leading state and local health officials to warn swimmers, fishermen and shellfish eaters to take precautions.

The naturally occurring bacteria, vibrio, can cause gastrointestinal illness as well as nasty skin infections — and sometimes can kill. So far this year, 24 Maryland cases of vibrio have been recorded, close to the average annual count of 30, but the season is far from over and officials say many cases likely go unreported.

"It's a summertime event in the sense that the organism lives in brackish water and really multiplies in the water when it gets hot," said Frances Phillips, Maryland's deputy secretary of public health services. "As expected, we're seeing an increasing number of cases."
Vibrio enters the body through cuts in a swimmer's skin or when undercooked shellfish is eaten. It's a problem every year in the bay and area rivers, but public health officials worry that this year could be worse.

Officials say swimmers and fishermen should avoid ingesting water from the bay and its tributaries, and should stay out of the water if they have an open wound. Parents should check their children for cuts and scrapes, and should wash them immediately with soap if the water gets near the wound.

Consumers, meanwhile, should make sure their shellfish is thoroughly cooked, and not eat raw shellfish such as oysters. It's not oyster season on the bay, but imported oysters could also be infected with vibrio.

Visitors to Gunpowder State Park in northern Baltimore County said Thursday that they had not heard about the warnings. But some took precautions anyway because they assumed there was some bacteria in the water.

"We always wash off when we get home," said Angela Neff of Perry Hall, who was swimming with her husband, Tom, her two children and three nieces and nephews. "We always think about what may be in the water, but we're not worried enough about it not to swim."

Sonia Austin of Northeast Baltimore said she checked the park website for warnings before bringing her 3-year-old grandson, Khalil Lawson, to swim. She said she didn't see any current advisories. After hearing about the alert, she still felt that the water was safe enough.

"He is having a ball," she said of Khalil. "I'll just keep an eye on him."

Health officials said they were not trying to discourage swimming by healthy people, who generally recover from an infection.

But vibrio can be deadly for people with compromised immune systems, including those with cancer and diabetes. They should avoid the water.

There have been no Maryland deaths this year attributed to vibrio infections, according to state data, but there have been seven deaths since 2007 and 66 hospitalizations. Eight people have been hospitalized this year.

Anyone with symptoms should seek medical attention, health officials said. They usually surface in a day or two and include watery diarrhea with abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever and skin lesions.

Some local health offices plan to put warning signs at local beaches, including those in Calvert County, where a handful of cases have drawn media attention.

Dr. David Rogers, Calvert County Health Officer, said there have been four infections locally — three from contact with water from the bay and area rivers, and one from ingesting vibrio. He said he didn't consider that a lot of cases, but he issued an alert because the infections got some media attention after the Patuxent Waterkeeper, an environmental group, sought to alert the public to the dangers.

Rogers did not identify those infected, but they included a man who had fallen on a dock and cut himself before coming in contact with the water and a 10-year-old girl who got an ear infection.

"These are potentially very serious infections," he said. "If you get an area with redness, swelling and pus, it needs to be properly treated. In general, though, I don't consider this an alarming public health situation."

State health officials say that the official count of vibrio cases has not risen much in recent years — there were 29 in 2004 and 33 in 2009. But Phillips acknowledges that many people probably don't see a doctor or the doctor doesn't test for vibrio or report the findings to state health officials, as required by law.

Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there are about 4,500 reported cases annually, but the agency also says that cases are underreported.

A 2009 Chesapeake Bay Foundation report on water quality found vibrio and other contaminants in the bay waters becoming an increasing problem. Normally associated with warmer waters such as the Gulf of Mexico, vibrio has become more common in the bay as the world's waters have warmed. In the last year or so, it has even been found in Alaska.

Contributing to that report was Rita Colwell, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and University of Maryland, College Park, who has studied vibrio for decades.

In an interview, she said the bacteria thrives because the salty waters are warming and because runoff polluted with nutrients is fueling growth of plankton, which feeds critters that host vibrio. In dense concentrations, the vibrio make people sick.

If the waters continue to warm and pollution increases, the bacteria will remain out of balance and cases will tick up, she said.

"I don't anticipate a large outbreak," she said. "But people need to take precautions, use common sense."
www.thebaltimoresun.com

Cell Phones Are 18 Times Dirtier Than Toilet Handles

You may want to peel your mobile phone away from your face, considering it may be dirtier than a toilet handle, the Daily Mail reported.

A U.K. study tested 30 mobile phones for levels of potentially harmful bacteria, or the total viable bacterial count (TVC).

High TVC levels don’t pose any immediate harm, but usually indicate poor hygiene.

The results revealed that 25 percent exceeded the acceptable TVC by 10 times and have 18 times the TVC as a handle on a public restroom toilet. The Which? magazine study suggests that 14.7 million of the 63 million phones being used in the U.K. could pose a health risk, the report said.

“Most phones didn’t have any immediate harmful bacteria that would make you sick straight away, but they were grubbier than they could be,” said Ceri Stanaway, a researcher with Which? magazine.

One phone’s TVC level was so high it put its owner at risk of a serious stomach ache, the report said.

“The levels of potentially harmful bacteria on one mobile were off the scale. That phone needs sterilizing,” Jim Francis, a hygiene expert, said.

The phone with the most bacteria had more than ten times the acceptable level, as well as 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria, which includes Salmonella.

“What this shows is how easy it is to come into contact with bacteria,” Stanaway said. “People see toilet flushes as being something dirty to touch, but they have less bacteria than phones.”

The tests also found E. coli and staphylococcus aureus, among other food poisoning bugs, but at safe levels. There was also 170 times the acceptable level of the bacteria associated with human waste, fecal coliforms.

“People need to be mindful of that by observing good hygiene themselves and among others who they pass the phone to when looking at photos, for example,” Stanaway said.

www.foxnews.com