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Community-Acquired ST398 MRSA Found in Sweden
This is not good. A recent article in Emerging Infectious Diseases describes two separate cases of community-acquired ST398 MRSA–and neither case was associated with agriculture. Let me explain what...
View ArticleWhy VRE Is a Problem
ScienceBlogling Revere links to a news article about high levels of VRE, vancomycin resistant enterococci in beach sand. While Revere and the article both describe how this indicates that VRE are...
View Article‘Hopeful Monsters’: Nothing in Evolution Makes Sense Except in the Light of...
While I’m away at ASM, here’s something from the archives for you When I read Olivia Judson’s post about hopeful monsters, I didn’t think she used the term correctly (here are some good explanations...
View ArticleThe Fitness Cost of Resistance Could Be…
…the signal peptide? Interesting. I’ll start at the beginning. One of the few bright spots regarding the problem of antibiotic resistance is that resistance typically infers a fitness cost to the...
View ArticleUnnecessary Bioterrorism Hysteria
A recent post about the looming specter of bioterrorism by William Lind due to ‘biohacking’ seems overblown to me. But before I get Lind, what I find particularly disturbing about hyping a non-existent...
View ArticleKPC: The Other Potential Pandemic–And We’re Completely Ignoring It
In the midst of the concern about TEH SWINEY FLOO!, very few people (other than the Mad Biologist), have been discussing the double whammy of influenza followed by bacterial infections. A couple of...
View ArticleAbout That Slate Antibiotic Resistance Article…
Yesterday, four people emailed me, asking about Brian Palmer’s Slate article about antibiotic resistance. Since I’ll probably get more such emails (and thank you for sending them), I’ll offer my...
View ArticleJonathan Eisen Asks About Finishing Microbial Genomes…and the Mad Biologist...
Over at The Tree of Life, Jonathan Eisen asks: What do people think are the potential benefits that could come from finishing? For those who don’t know what genome finishing is, I’ll let Eisen give the...
View ArticleAntibiotic Resistance, Information, and the Unyielding Stupidity of the...
I haven’t gone after creationists in quite a while, because it just starts to feel like picking on the slow kid. Both PZ Myers and Kele Cable attended a seminar by Answers in Genesis High Wackaloon...
View ArticleSome More Thoughts About the German E. coli Outbreak
After Friday’s post, I’ve held off on writing much about the German E. coli outbreak, often referred to by its serotype, O104:H4, or as HUSEC041 (HUS stands for hemolytic uremic syndrome). Having had...
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