When Your Bacteria Colonies Get Hostile: That's An Infection

by Erica Mitchell | September 30 2020

There is a good chance that you have Staph - Staphylococcus aureus - on your body right now. In fact, it is estimated that 25-30% of us carry Staph on our skin or in our nose all the time. But a quarter of us are not sick, suffering from the symptoms of a Staph infection. What's the deal? It comes down to colonization vs. infection.

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3 Ways to Get Ready for the "Twindemic": Flu & COVID-19

by Erica Mitchell | September 28 2020

As weather in the Northern Hemisphere gets cooler, our flu season begins. While social distancing and mask-wearing has kept the flu season at reduced rates in the Southern Hemisphere this year, there is no promise that those trends will continue for us in the north. In today's post, we'll look at 5 ways we can be better prepared for the flu season, and help make sure we don't make an already-difficult situation even worse.

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Gram Positive vs Gram Negative Bacteria and the Fight Against HAIs

by Erica Mitchell | September 23 2020

In formal descriptions of the germ-fighting powers of antibacterial and biocidal products, the terms "Gram positive" and "Gram negative" are used as a way to categorize bacteria. While there are estimated to be over 10,000 species of bacteria, they can be categorized into a few helpful categories.

One of those categories has to do with the structure of the cell membrane. All the known bacteria fit into one of two categories of cell membrane structure: Gram-positive or Gram-negative. But what does that mean?

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Pathogen, Persistence, and Prevalence

by Erica Mitchell | September 16 2020

There are may different pathogens that cause HAIs. Researchers have studied which of these infectious agents tend to cause infections, how those pathogens are transmitted, and which protocols lead to less contamination. Today we'll explore which pathogens cause hospital-acquired infections, which are the most common, and how long can these pathogens survive on surfaces where they can lead to cross-contamination. Think of it as the three P's: Pathogen, Prevalence, and Persistence.

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Wildfires and Infection

by Erica Mitchell | September 9 2020

Over the past week, firefighters have been working to control record setting fires throughout California. These are lethal fires, consuming entire neighborhoods as they grow and spread. All of us have seen the images, and the headlines capture the urgency of the response teams as they fight to control this powerful force of nature. Those of us in infection control may see in these fires similar traits with an opportunistic pathogen, spreading quickly through a patient's body and leaving destruction in its wake. It turns out this comparison is as old as the science of infection control itself, tracing back to a word coined in the 1800s: Fomites.

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Herd Immunity: Is It Possible Without A Stampede?

by Erica Mitchell | September 3 2020

Lately, conversations about herd immunity and COVID-19 have been taking place around TV news desks and family dining room tables: Could herd immunity give us the protection we need from COVID-19? Some news articles seem to say that this is a viable option, while others warn vehemently against it. In today's post, we'll explore the role herd immunity can play in stopping the spread of disease, and specifically, whether it can help us during the current pandemic.

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The Final Round-Up of Pathogens Causing Hospital-Acquired Infections

by Erica Mitchell | September 2 2020

Today's post wraps up the usual suspects when it comes to pathogens contributing to hospital acquired infection. These pathogens, while less prevalent than those mentioned in earlier posts, still pose a danger to immunocompromised patients in healthcare settings. 

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© EOS Surfaces and EOScu Blog, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to EOS Surfaces and EOScu Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.