If Quorum Sensing plays a bigger role in hospital infections should there not be measures to tackle germ carrying areas particularly where faecal matters are? So washing hands may not be enough. Japanese style toilettes?
This is the story of a much respected retired professor. As he celebrated his
82nd birthday, we have to be thankful that he must have some strong genes to
have survived the last eight months. An unfortunate slip at home fractured one
of his ankles, and as a pin was needed a surgical procedure was performed in a
local hospital by the Orthopaedic surgeon. For the following eight months an
otherwise independent and healthy eighty one year old had to suffer the
indignity of many more hospital procedures because of a lingering infection.
Nearly 15 years since the
discovery of Quorum
Sensing by Nottingham
University Cambridge and Southampton
indicated that this was not in their curriculum and they had never heard of it.Cambridge
Why?
Bonnie Bassler said
that all we knew about bacteriology in the last 300 years is all wrong. Strong
words indeed. So are we still teaching medical students all the wrong stuff?
Think MRSA and C.difficile and
I am sure you will agree.
I know that it is a new field
and much of it theoretical and conjectural but I was a medical student once and
the greatest buzz for me then was Heart Transplant, and VAMP treatment for some
kind of leukaemia. So could we not let the future doctors have some excitement
other than the 4G iPhone?
Surely we need to inspire
some great brains to go where no men have gone before.France and Holland
We do seem to have lots of
“good” lateral thinkers working in the NHS. In the meantime, our well loved
professor has decided to move to sheltered housing. Months of struggling with
his immobility and inability to go walking, swimming, shopping and getting on
with his daily chores robbed him of his desire to be independent. But at least
he survived.
What about his hospital
manager? Did he or she get the bonus?
If Quorum Sensing plays a bigger role in hospital infections should there not be measures to tackle germ carrying areas particularly where faecal matters are? So washing hands may not be enough. Japanese style toilettes?
This is the story of a much respected retired professor. As he celebrated his 82nd birthday, we have to be thankful that he must have some strong genes to have survived the last eight months. An unfortunate slip at home fractured one of his ankles, and as a pin was needed a surgical procedure was performed in a local hospital by the Orthopaedic surgeon. For the following eight months an otherwise independent and healthy eighty one year old had to suffer the indignity of many more hospital procedures because of a lingering infection.
“I don’t know” was his
answer when we visited him and asked if it was the dreaded MRSA.
He was never tested!
Nearly 15 years since the
discovery of Quorum
Sensing by Nottingham
University Cambridge and Southampton
indicated that this was not in their curriculum and they had never heard of it.
There is of course a Nottingham Quorum Sensing website
and certainly Cambridge
Why?
Bonnie Bassler said
that all we knew about bacteriology in the last 300 years is all wrong. Strong
words indeed. So are we still teaching medical students all the wrong stuff?
Is professional jealousy
at work here? Surely not. But Quorum
Sensing will itself lead to other exciting findings about the
world of the microbe that has so far got the upper hand on the ever so clever
Homo sapiens.
Think MRSA and C.difficile and
I am sure you will agree.
I know that it is a new field
and much of it theoretical and conjectural but I was a medical student once and
the greatest buzz for me then was Heart Transplant, and VAMP treatment for some
kind of leukaemia. So could we not let the future doctors have some excitement
other than the 4G iPhone?
Surely we need to inspire
some great brains to go where no men have gone before.
It is now well established
that in France and Holland
I do not think that is the
result of them using some of the methods we have been known to use here,
i.e. not testing
the patients. Their standard of care is probably different and
their wards are not as crowded.
We do seem to have lots of
“good” lateral thinkers working in the NHS. In the meantime, our well loved
professor has decided to move to sheltered housing. Months of struggling with
his immobility and inability to go walking, swimming, shopping and getting on
with his daily chores robbed him of his desire to be independent. But at least
he survived.
What about his hospital
manager? Did he or she get the bonus?
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