Watch Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Develop Over Time

Watch this powerful time-lapse  video demonstrating the development of antibiotic resistance in E. coli bacteria over time. E. coli starts out at the edges of the petri dish where no antibiotics are present. Over time, mutations develop allowing E. coli to not only resist the antibiotics, but to thrive allowing it to grow towards the center where antibiotics are present at 1000x the concentration of the minimal amount initially required to kill E. coli bacteria. Scared? You should be..…

9/14/2016 1

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MRSA Ear Drainage or Ear Infection

It has been with increased frequency that I have been encountering children and even some adults with persistent ear drainage due to ear infections caused by MRSA . MRSA is basically a multi-drug resistant ear infection for which only a few antibiotics can kill the germ. (MRSA stands for M ethicillin R esistant S taphylococcus A ureus.) Typically this situation is encountered after ear tubes have been placed allowing for any pus from an ear infection to come out. Normally, antibiotic ear d…

9/08/2016 0

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The Nose is a Jungle of Germs (even in Normal Healthy People)!

A fascinating study was conducted by Stanford researchers on the amount and types of germs found inside the nose in normal healthy individuals, whether they are staph carriers or not. In a typical nose in a healthy individual without any symptoms, the following "germs" can be found. Keep in mind that ALL these germs have the potential to cause a pathological sinus infection : • Corynebacterium • Propionibacterium • Escherichia-Shigella • Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA…

12/12/2013 0

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When Your Child Has a Draining Ear

Guest Blog Post by Dr. Julie Wei, MD, FAAP One of the most common and simple procedures that Otolaryngologists (ear, nose, and throat specialists) perform is that of putting “tubes” in children’s ears. General and pediatric otolaryngologists alike perform thousands of these simple and quick procedures every year, often several times in a single hour! Most children who need and get “tubes” in their ears are toddlers and those in preschool age. What continues to surprise me is how often pare…

4/11/2013 16

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Test That Distinguishes Between Bacterial or Viral Infections

From the pages of CSI: Miami ... a commonly used forensic chemical called luminol to identify traces of blood at crime scenes has been modified to be used in a novel medical test that can help differentiate a viral infection from a bacterial infection. Why is this important? Not uncommonly, it is sometimes hard to differentiate between a bacterial infection which is treated with antibiotics from a viral infection which is NOT treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately, in the healthcare sys…

7/27/2011 0

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Think MRSA Infection is Bad? NDM-1 Infection is Worse!

Image from Wikipedia NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1) is an infection for which there is no (or at best maybe only 1 or 2) antibiotic treatment. It is the superman of superbugs. The NDM-1 actually is a gene that produces an enzyme that deactivates basically all antibiotics and is felt to have originated in India where it was first encountered. This gene most commonly is found in gram negative organisms like E. Coli and Klebsiella, but the scary thing is that this gene can be…

9/14/2010 0

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