Before plunging into your hotel swimming pool, or soaking in hot tubs during your long-awaited summer holiday, you might want to think twice, especially if you have health problems. What lies beneath the sparkling, inviting surface of the water is something we would rather not think about. As well as being good for your health, […]
Can worms really be loving parents? For many millions of years worms have led a simple life in which they feed off the bacteria that exist in the fermenting environments they live in. Although they have a simple nervous system, they have cleverly learnt to avoid bad bacteria that would harm them. They perpetuate generations […]
Urine is one of the most common diagnostic specimens. However there is a high rate of contamination in collecting urine samples, rendering them useless. A Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection of the urinary tract, most commonly the bladder, but occasionally the kidneys, (also known as pyelonephritis). UTI’s are treated with pain relief […]
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Most people in the UK don’t wash their hands hands thoroughly enough to get rid of bacteria that can cause cause upset stomachs, colds and flu, according to a new survey from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS). 84% of British adults fail to lather up for the recommended time of 20 seconds which is as […]
Cystitis is an inflammation of the bladder and is a common type of urinary tract infection. Others UTIs include acute pyelonephritis, which affects the kidneys and can lead to loin pain and high fever, and urethritis, which is inflammation of the tube that carries urine from the bladder outside the body. ‘Cystitis, which is caused […]
Drug-resistant gonorrhoea is a major global health concern but a new antibiotic class has now been found to be effective against the bacteria that causes the sexually-transmitted disease in the laboratory. Closthioamide, discovered in 2010, might eventually offer an alternative for current drugs that are becoming less effective against gonorrhoea, according to a paper published […]
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A new antibiotic, produced by bacteria found on a species of African ant, is very potent against antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’ like MRSA according to scientists. Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the John Innes Centre (JIC) discovered a new member of the Streptomyces bacteria family, isolated from the African fungus-growing plant-ant Tetraponera penzigi. […]
As a mum of three, I know just how dirty a family car can get. My children are grown up now but I remember long car journeys from where we lived in St Albans all the way to Cornwall on holiday. It was the usual happy chaos, with the kids fighting for legroom, the dog […]
Scientific research is an ongoing process and one conclusion often raises more questions than it answers. Our research, published in the journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infection in June, provides evidence that some types of blood infections are more fatal in women than in men. In a large cohort of patients with bacteraemia caused by […]
“The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily under-dose himself, and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug, make them resistant “ Alexander Fleming We are now at the risk of entering a dark period […]