Vamire...what?

When you hear the phrase “I want to suck your blood,” you think of vampires, right?  Well similarly there are vampires in the microbe world!  Now how does this work?  A bacteria species lives just by sucking the life out of other microbes, pretty cool huh?  Well as cool as that is, it gets better.  The bacteria has the potential to be considered a living antibiotic.  The bacteria works by attaching itself to the cell wall of the victim, then sucks out all the nutrients and energy from the cell, leaving that cell dead.  This strategy can be used for treating bacteria based human diseases. 

“‘Pathologists may eventually be able to use this bacterium to fight fire with fire, so to speak, as a bacterium that will aggressively hunt for and attack certain other bacteria that are extremely harmful to humans,’ study researcher Martin Wu said in a statement.”

These bacteria have been extremely difficult to study because they are contaminated by the other bacteria they feed on.  A study at the University of Virginia had used modern genetic techniques to isolate and sequence the genome of the vampire bacteria.  According to the study, the bacteria can't live on their own, even if all the nutrients needed are available.  "That's because they don't have the genes necessary to transport some integral nutrients through their cell wall, so they need to get them directly from other bacteria."    

Understanding how the bacteria functions may be able to help us with the living antibiotic idea.  "Traditional antibiotics breed resistance as the bacteria adapt to the drugs and "escape" their antibacterial effects.  This resistance leads to super-bugs, bacteria that are resistant to multiple kinds of drugs."  If we would somehow be able to use these "vampire" microbes to our advantage, we would be able to avoid the "super-bug" and the adaptation to antibiotics, and will reduce our dependence for the use of "traditional" antibiotics.   

http://www.livescience.com/16822-vampire-bacteria-genome.html

#GetEducated

     Want to know what really grinds my gears?  When someone formulates an idea with absolutely NO logic behind it.  Let me back-track here...Ebola.  With all the hype in the news about the Ebola Virus lately, it's no wonder why there are such wild theories.  

I logged onto Instagram today, checking to see what's new.  I saw a post about AMC's The Walking Dead.  I, being a huge fan of The Walking Dead, decided to see the video post.  The post was all the way from season one!  This is the video clip:

Yes, sorry about the bad quality of  this video I found, but this was on season 1 of The Walking Dead. So what is going on?  The scientist wont let the survivors leave, and the CDC is about to destruct, killing everyone and everything inside it..."We protected the public from very nasty stuff!  Weaponized smallpox!  Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country!"  So what, right?  Well the caption on the video on Instagram was "The Walking Dead talks about Ebola before it became known???"  Wooooow... 

     Here's what I've got to say about that...Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River.  1976.  Our current year is 2014.  So, it was first discovered in 1976...meaning we have known about Ebola....since 1976.  For some reason it really makes me mad at the fact that people are posting things without any background knowledge.  The person's post is making it seem like there is some weird conspiracy theory...no.  Ebola has many strains, and the way it spreads is what makes Ebola so dangerous, so yes, if not contained, it probably could wipe out half of a country.  Sorry to say, but this is NOT the first Ebola outbreak the world has experienced.  So why are people acting like this is such a new virus?  Yes, it is scary but it is not new.  (Unless you consider 1976 new...) 

Want some information on the Ebola virus NOT from random people?  Visit the CDC's website.  http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/about.html

You pierced your whaaaaat?

    Piercings are a way of self-expression, also a form of addiction.  Once you pierce one thing, sometimes you constantly want more piercings.  I, myself, am guilty of this so-to-say, "addiction."  I have 8 piercings: naval/bellybutton, 3 ear lobe piercings, a tragus, conch, cartilage, and rook..yet I still want at least four more.  As with any piercing, you are told about the risk of infection, but usually you, as the person being pierced, ignores the risks and warnings because we are so excited to get pierced.  Some things before I get pierced that I look up are pain level, healing time, and stories about the healing process.  I have always been really good with piercings,they never reject nor get infected, until I pierced my rook.. (piercing to the right),  No, this is not my ear, but this is a rook piercing.  Notice the location, as well as it does not completely pierce the whole ear, rather curves inside the ear.  Meaning if you were to see the back of the ear, it would appear as if there was no piercing.  Cleaning a piercing, my piercer always says to clean it twice a day with non-scented, anti-bacterial soap.  I didn't put much thought into this piercing getting infected, but when you think about it, it would right?  This piercing actually has, by looking up stories, an unusually high infection rate.  Almost every story I read, the person experienced an infection.  A few days after piercing my rook, I had my first piercing infection. ..not cool.

   So now what? Do you take the piercing out?  NO.  The piercing will close up, and if not cleaned properly, the infection will remain in the ear and will still spread.  At this point, I waited a few days to treat my infection, thinking it was "just healing."  When my ear became swollen, felt hot to touch, and hurt to touch....and oozy...that is when it all became real.  So what is recommended?  A saline soak.  A simple solution actually.  

One of the best things you can do for all healing or irritated piercings is a saline soak. A warm, mild saltwater solution irrigates, cleanses, and allows the cells to rejuvenate. Saline soaks keep the cells well hydrated while simultaneously flushing out fluid and cellular material that accumulate in the wound. This reduces crusting and helps prevent pockets of trapped matter, which can create unsightly and difficult-to-eliminate bumps. If this debris is not removed, it can impede healing. The warm water also opens capillaries and stimulates blood flow, which transports oxygen to the region, promoting healing.  This is not an invitation to swim in the ocean, where you might encounter numerous microbes, motor oil, and other hazards. The goal is to use a solution with a saline concentration similar to that of the human body.

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A saline soak.  Within a day, my infection had started to heal.  Since the cartilage area of the ear does not have great blood, it does not have a great supply of immune cells to the ear to fight off infections...therefore resulting in my infected rook.  Although I did acquire an infection, what happens to those who have a serious, untreated infection?  Hospitalization.  Piercing in the mouth are especially serious when they become infected...so how are they treated once in the hospital? 

We give them an antibiotic to usually treat the streptococcus or staphylococcus bacteria that is on the skin.  But the antibiotics wont help because they needed an antibiotic that could fight the gram negative bacteria found in the mouth.  

In some cases, the part of the body can become disfigured, scarred, or even death.  As many piercers will tell you, it is all about keeping the area clean.  But sometimes there can be other factors that fall into play: how sterile is the piercing environment, how sterile is the piercing equipment, how sterile is the area being pierced, and how well are you willing to keep the piercing clean? Microbes are everywhere, beyond our control.  A piercing is basically an open wound, a hole in your body that needs to heal.  So when it is not kept clean, microbes can enter the infected site and do some serious damage to the given are. Yes, some areas are more prone to becoming infected, but that just means you need to take extra care, and immediately take action if the thought of infection crosses your mind.  Certain activities must be avoided because of the exposure to certain microbes.  A piercing is a small hole in one’s body but can cause major consequences if not cared for properly.   

http://www.piercingbible.com/saline-soaks
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117058&page=1&singlePage=true