Going to the gym or participating in any sport that involves shared equipment and bathing facilities has always carried the risk of contracting respiratory or skin infections like athlete’s foot, impetigo, herpes simplex and ringworm—just to name a few. But with more deadly skin infections like MRSA on the scene, knowing how to play it safe and prevent infections may save your life.

Hot Bed for Bugs

Three primary factors make athletic environments the perfect breeding ground to spread infections:

• Multiple people sharing equipment and locker rooms
• Hot, steamy, sweaty environments that foster growth of bacteria and fungi
• Physical activities (individual or group sports) often involve abrasions or injuries that result in broken skin vulnerable to infection.

Taken together, experts say that you should assume exposure to a number of bad bugs and take steps to prevent infection.

What to Do

Wash Hands – frequent hand washing is the single most important way to prevent many infections. A recent report noted an alarming increase in the prevalence of MRSA in the noses of both healthy children and adults. So sneezing into your hands or blowing your nose without washing your hands may spread these bacteria to others.

Bring Personal Supplies – bring your own equipment when possible. This includes: yoga mats, boxing gloves, wraps, towels and razors.

Cover Wounds – if you have an open wound, even a scratch, keep it covered. If you have an infection, stay out of pools or hot tubs and keep the area covered to prevent giving it to others.

Wipe Equipment – wipe down equipment before and after use—but not with the same towel you use to mop sweat off your own brow. Your gym should have antibacterial spray and towels for this purpose.

Take Showers – shower before and after using pools, hot tubs or steam rooms to prevent “hot tub rash” caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Use Shower Shoes – wearing shower shoes is a good way to prevent picking up a fungal infection from locker room floors and showers.

Stay Clean, Dry – to prevent fungal infections post workout, get out of damp clothes and socks and take a shower. Dry arm-pits, groin area and feet (especially between toes) thoroughly. You can go a step further and use a blow dryer on low or apply talcum powder as well. Also, don’t wear gym shoes if they are still damp from a previous workout. This may require having two or three pairs of gym shoes.

Separate Clothes – Keep clean clothes separate from dirty ones. It’s best to have two gym bags, one for clean clothes and the other for dirty clothes, shoes and used towels. Also wash gym bags regularly.

Stay Home – If you have a cold or the flu stay home until you’ve been free of a fever for at least a day so you don’t spread your germs to others. For other communicable conditions, follow doctor’s orders to prevent spread of infection.

Responsible Facilities

In addition to doing your part to prevent infections, facilities should also maintain certain standards for a clean and safe facility including:

• Periodic cleaning of all equipment and locker rooms throughout the day.
• Providing antibacterial wipes, sprays or towels to clean equipment.
• Liquid soap dispensers for hand washing and showers.

Despite the risk of picking up an infection at the gym or playing contact sports, experts say the benefits of physical exercise far outweigh any risks—so don’t even think about cancelling your gym membership!

Sources:

New York Times

WebMD

US News

Years ago we only had to worry about contracting Lyme Disease from a deer tick bite in a few areas of the U.S. Now, not only has the tick’s range expanded to more parts of the country, the number of diseases they may be carrying is also growing and public health officials are concerned.

Malaria Look-Alike

According to new research from the Yale School of Public Health, one emerging tick-borne disease, babesiosis, is expanding its range in areas of the northeast where it has become well-established.

Babesiosis is caused by the parasite Babesia microti. It is similar to malaria in that it invades and destroys red blood cells. In the U.S., this parasite is the most common pathogen transmitted through blood transfusions.

Symptoms of an infection include fever, fatigue, chills, headache, sweats and muscle pain. Infection can be asymptomatic or severe, causing death in about 6 to 9 percent of patients. Infection through transfusion has a higher fatality rate. In all cases it is treated with antibiotics.

Babesiosis was first reported in Connecticut in 1991 but is now considered endemic in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin as well as Connecticut. And cases have turned up in at least 8 other states, from Washington to northern California in the West and from Maine to Maryland in the East.

Risk of Encephalitis

Also of concern are two tick-borne viruses, deer tick virus and Powassan virus (POWV) that can cause fatal encephalitis, inflammation of the brain. Moreover, the number of cases appears to be rising rapidly. Between 1958 and 2003—a span of 45 years—only about 40 cases of POWV were reported in the United States and Canada. Then, in four years, from 2008 to 2012, 21 cases were reported from Wisconsin and Minnesota, and 12 cases from New York State.

These viruses have also been reported in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and Vermont. Many of these viral infections are mild or asymptomatic. But more severe infections can progress to encephalitis, which can have a case fatality rate of up to 15 percent and cause permanent nerve or brain damage in about 50 percent of diagnosed cases.

Bacterial Diseases

And that's not all. Deer ticks also are known to transmit a bacterial disease known as HGA (human granulocytic anaplasmosis) Also known as ehrlichiosis, HGA has become the third most frequent vector-borne disease in North America and Europe. (Vector-borne diseases are those transmitted to humans by blood sucking insects such as mosquitoes, fleas and lice or arachnids such as mites and ticks.)

HGA attacks white blood cells, and while milder forms cause fever and muscle pain, it can also cause serious disease and immune system malfunction that can lead to opportunistic infections. It is related to Rocky Mountain spotted fever (transmitted by another tick species) and typhus (transmitted by lice.)

How to Protect Yourself

It was only a few months ago that we reported on an uptick in the number of cases of Lyme Disease. These tips to prevent infection are all the more important now.

Source:

Eurekalert

Antibiotics are the most important tool we have to combat life threatening bacterial infections or diseases. However, antibiotic overuse or misuse increases the development of drug-resistant germs. This means that when you need them most, antibiotics may fail to work for you.

Appropriate Use

Antibiotics can cure bacterial infections, not viral infections. Treating viruses with antibiotics does not work, and it increases the likelihood that you will become ill with an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection.  

Another reason to limit the use of antibiotics is the chance of an adverse reaction. In children, reactions to antibiotics are the most common cause of emergency department visits for adverse drug events.  

Scope of the Problem

Infections involving resistant bacteria have become more common in healthcare and community settings, and many bacteria have become resistant to more than one type or class of antibiotic.  

• It is estimated that more than 50% of antibiotics are unnecessarily prescribed in office settings for upper respiratory infections (URIs) like cough and cold illness, most of which are caused by viruses.  
• Up to 50% of antibiotic use in hospitals is either unnecessary or inappropriate.  

The concern over the increasing numbers of drug resistant bacteria prompted the CDC to launch the National Campaign for Appropriate Antibiotic Use, which gives patients, caregivers and healthcare providers guidelines for preventing drug-resistant bacteria.

What You Can Do

The CDC recommends these guidelines for patients:

• Do not take an antibiotic for a viral infection like a cold or the flu.
• Do not save some of your antibiotic for the next time you get sick. Discard any leftover medication once you have completed your prescribed course of treatment.
• Take an antibiotic exactly as the healthcare provider tells you. Do not skip doses. Complete the prescribed course of treatment even if you are feeling better. If treatment stops too soon, some bacteria may survive and re-infect.
• Do not take antibiotics prescribed for someone else. The antibiotic may not be appropriate for your illness. Taking the wrong medicine may delay correct treatment and allow bacteria to multiply.
• If your healthcare provider determines that you do not have a bacterial infection, ask about ways to help relieve your symptoms. Do not pressure your provider to prescribe an antibiotic.
• Be Proactive. Prevent infections by practicing good hand hygiene and getting recommended vaccines.

Source:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Eco-friendly reusable grocery totes are becoming increasingly popular with shoppers but a recent survey found that only 15% of us are washing them regularly, which can quickly turn your good intentions into a breeding ground for harmful bacteria that can make you sick.

But it’s not just failing to wash reusable totes that increases your risk of food poisoning, says the American Dietetic Association, one of the sponsors of the Home Food Safety program. There are a few other things you can do to keep your desire to be “green” from having an entirely different and unpleasant meaning.

Grocery Tote Safety Tips:

• Wash your grocery tote frequently in the washing machine or by hand with hot, soapy water. Whether you use a clothes dryer or allow it to drip dry, make sure the bag is completely dry before storing or reusing.
• When shopping, put meat, poultry and fish in separate plastic bags before placing in the tote. This will help prevent juices from leaking and contaminating your reusable bags and food. (Some reusable totes have a leak-proof lining that will work too.)
• Place fresh or frozen raw meat, poultry and fish in separate totes from produce and ready-to-eat foods.
• Clean all areas where you place your totes, such as kitchen counter or table, to reduce cross contamination.
• Store totes in a clean, dry location. Avoid leaving totes in the trunk of a vehicle.

Other Food Safety Tips:

Preventing cross contamination when preparing or storing foods is also important to prevent illness.

• To stay safe in the kitchen, use two cutting boards: one strictly to cut raw meat, poultry and seafood; the other for ready-to-eat foods, like breads and vegetables.
• Cutting boards can be sanitized in the dishwasher or by using hydrogen peroxide or undiluted white vinegar. Be careful when using hydrogen peroxide as it can bleach/discolor fabrics and some surfaces.
• In the refrigerator, place packages of raw meat in a dish or bowl to prevent juices from dripping on other items.
• Sanitize the refrigerator regularly with hydrogen peroxide or undiluted white vinegar.

This time of year it is especially important to practice good food safety. Protect yourself and Don’t Let Foodborne Illness Spoil Your Summer!

Source:

Home Food Safety

Two separate research groups working independently may have found the cause or a possible accelerant of colon cancer. They found a high concentration of the bacteria, Fusobacterium in colon cancer tumors. If Fusobacteria do predispose humans to colon cancer, one day researchers may be able to devise a colon cancer vaccine, much like the HPV vaccine that protects against cervical cancer.

The researchers uncovered the link between the bacterium and colon cancer by analyzing genetic material in tumor samples. After they subtracted human genes, what remained were microbe genes. They found an average of 415 times as many Fusobacteria in the tumor cells as in the normal cells.

Not only were the bacteria present around the cancer cells, they were burrowing into tumor cells—a characteristic that often distinguishes a disease-causing microbe from one that is harmless. The bacteria were especially prevalent in patients whose cancer had spread beyond their colons.

Adding credence to the findings is the fact that both groups of researchers using samples from different parts of the world and two independent labs found the same association between Fusobacteria and colon cancer.

Fusobacteria were known before this, but were thought of as microbes that mostly live in the mouth. They are often in plaque and are associated with periodontal disease. But there are recent reports associating them with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Both of these diseases increase the risk of colon cancer.

How Fusobacteria may cause tumors in the colon is still unknown, but the researchers suspect inflammation. Fusobacteria creates inflammation, and cancer is linked to inflammation. However, that does not necessarily mean that Fusobacteria cause cancer. Tumors themselves can cause inflammation, and some opportunistic bacteria take advantage and invade damaged tissues. So the presence of Fusobacteria in a tumor may be secondary to the cancer, not the cause.

The researchers are conducting further studies to explore the bacterium association further. One group is investigating whether Fusobacteria affects polyps, tiny lumps on the colon wall. Colon cancers develop from polyps, though most polyps are harmless.

Sources:

New York Times

National Cancer Institute

Science Daily

Considering their growing reputation in supplements and food to support general wellness, I'm not surprised our friends at ConsumerLab.com turned their attention to probiotics. After an initial report some 14 months ago, ConsumerLab.com recently updated their findings on probiotics for adults, children and pets.

The good news: Most of the 27 products ConsumerLab.com tested passed with no problems, meaning they contained the amount of probiotic organisms manufacturers listed on their labels. Notably, of the nine probiotics that failed, however, three were products suitable for kids.

In fact, one chocolate-flavored product that advertised as much as 2.6 billion probiotic organisms at the time of manufacture on its label contained the lowest percentage among all products tested (just 7 percent). Moreover, five of the nine that failed ConsumerLab.com's quality testing contained 21 percent or less of the gut-friendly organisms listed on product labels.

For the good of your health, it may be worthwhile to use our six questions for choosing the right supplement as a starting point when you're ready to find a good probiotic too.

ConsumerLab.com January 1, 2011 Subscription Required

For the longest time, technology stayed out of the public restroom. That is, until growing environmental and health concerns displaced non-threatening paper towel dispensers for annoying warm-air hand dryers that make folks feel like they're standing in the middle of an airport runway at rush hour when using them. But do those "wind-tunnel" air dryers really get your hands any cleaner than old-school paper towels? Maybe not…

British researchers compared the effectiveness of different kinds of warm air hand dryers -- traditional, evaporative machines that require rubbing one's hands versus one that stripped moisture by way of high velocity air jets -- on 14 patients whose hands were contaminated with fresh, uncooked chicken, then washed multiple times with nonmedicated liquid soap and running water.

With warm air dryers, the difference in cleanliness depended on the necessity of rubbing one's hands together. Using traditional machines that required rubbing to get hands dry reversed the reduction of bacteria after handwashing. Why? The rubbing action during drying forces bacteria living inside the skin to emerge to the outside skin, then be transferred to other surfaces. What's more, the reduction of bacteria was the same among all warm air dryers when the hands of patients weren't rubbed together.

Among warm air dryers, the machine that stripped the moisture from hands performed better than the others. However, the old school approach of drying hands with paper towels lowered bacteria counts more effectively than any of the warm air dryers tested.

On the subject of washing, just a reminder to sanitize your reusable grocery bags often, especially after using them to transport raw meats from the grocery store to your home.

Journal of Applied Microbiology September 7, 2010 Free Full Text Study

ScienceDaily September 7, 2010

I bet your initial surprise about the source of a completely avoidable food safety hazard -- reusable grocery bags -- probably mirrored my own, until you thought about it for a second or two. Bacteria levels in grocery bags tested in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tucson, Ariz., were high enough to cause a wide range of serious health problems -- including death -- according to researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University.

Almost everyone who was interviewed for the study never considered sanitizing their reusable bags, although thorough washing kills virtually all of the nasties that can accumulate in them. In fact, various forms of coliform bacteria, which includes the very popular E.coli bacteria was found on half of the 84 bags sampled. Additionally, half of the bags tested were used more than once a week, mostly for transporting groceries.

And, it's not a great idea -- especially if you live in a warmer climate -- to pack your store-bought meats in the trunk of your car for very long either. After meat juices were added to reusable bags stored in a car trunk for two hours, the amount of bacteria exploded by a factor of 10 when the indoor temperature was 116 degrees.

All that said, the lead author of the report believes the findings of his study don't suggest that there's a looming outbreak of disease looming in our future, and some health experts believe the average healthy person won't be sickened by the crud growing in our reusable grocery bags either.

That "healthy" skepticism won't stop me from washing my reusable bags very soon, however.

UA News June 24, 2010 Free Full Text Study

NPR June 25, 2010

We've discussed the value of probiotics, live microorganisms similar to the beneficial ones in the human gut that are contained in some foods before in this space. These are considered friendly or good bacteria.

The trick to good health is maintaining a healthy balance in all things, including bacteria. When bad bacteria outnumbers the good in your gut, however, that may signal a greater risk of colon cancer ahead, according to University of North Carolina scientists reviewing 45 samples from biopsies taken during colonoscopies.

Unfortunately, bad bacteria may be elevating a patient's colon cancer risks by generating waste products that harm colon tissues and make them more vulnerable to malignancies. By the same token, researchers say it's possible that adenomas, benign tumors that may serve as a warning sign of colon cancer, could be triggering the production of bad bacteria too.

Interestingly, you may be familiar with one group of bad bacteria, if you've been paying attention to our posts about food safety: The Proteobacteria made up of E.coli, salmonella and heliobacter, among others.

The good news: Scientists may be able to spot the signs of colon cancer faster and more accurately some day by detecting this bacterial shift from good to bad in fecal samples, than by a colonoscopy, a medical procedure many would prefer to avoid…

Image source: Nephron, GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.3

Gut Microbes, Vol. 1, No. 3, May/June 2010 Free Full PDF Study

PhysOrg.com June 22, 2010

The Suncoast News June 22, 2010

Municipal water systems are tricky. It's next to impossible not to use them, and they can be risky, considering you may be showering with bacteria-laden water that harms folks with compromised immune systems. Unfortunately, the risk of illness may be more widespread for many children and adults using public swimming pools, according to a CDC report.

Based on a review of more than 120,000 routine public pool inspections conducted in 13 states two years ago, 12 percent of pools (some 13,500) were closed immediately due to serious health violations, of which most were related to faulty disinfectant (12,917) or pH levels (10,148). And, nearly 74,000 of those pool inspections identified at least one violation.

The variety of pool systems cited most often by the CDC for safety violations (those that were shut down or had disinfectant problems) may surprise you:

1. Child care facility pools: 17.2 percent

2. Hotel/motel pools: 15.3 percent

3. Kiddie/wading pools: 13.5 percent

4. Interactive fountains: 12.6 percent

5. Apartment/condo pools: 12.4 percent

Learn more about diseases that can harm your gut, skin, ears and respiratory system and how to avoid them by reviewing CDC data on recreational water illness.

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Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 59, No. 19, pp. 582-587, May 21, 2010

healthfinder.gov May 20, 2010

CDC Online Newsroom May 20, 2010

If you were concerned about old-school antibiotics losing their ability to fight infections, no doubt, you'll be alarmed to discover that ordinary disinfectants may be making one specific bacterium impervious to a common antibiotic in addition to the chemicals used to get rid of them.

When Irish researchers exposed Pseudomonas aeruginosa to greater amounts of disinfectants in the lab, thanks to a DNA mutation, the bacterium adapted to survive exposure not only to these chemicals but the often prescribed ciproflaxcin.

Even worse, when the DNA-altered bacterium was exposed to very tiny amounts of disinfectant, it was more likely to survive. And, researchers worry that environmental factors may promote resistance to antibiotics too.

The huge problem: P. aeruginosa is considered an "opportunistic" bacterium, meaning it may ignite a great range of infections among patients with weak immune systems, such as those with diabetes and cystic fibrosis.

Microbiology, Vol. 156, No. 1, pp. 30-38, January 2010

LiveScience December 28, 2009

EurekAlert December 27, 2009

Image source: Dr. Lucille George, CDC