Category Archives: E. coli

Healthcare Is Not the Same As Healthcare Budgeting: The CREs Are Going to Kill Us All Edition

Posted on December 3, 2012 by

Every so often, I blog about CRE, which is short for carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (E. coli and relatives). CREs are resistant to just about every antibiotic (the two drugs commonly used, colistin and tigecycline, cause renal failure or are used off-label … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, E. coli, Fucking Morons, Healthcare, I For One Welcome Our Austerity Overlords, KPC, NDM-1 | 4 Comments

Microbiome Creep, E. coli and Colorectal Cancer (Oh My!)

Posted on August 23, 2012 by

My recent snark-laden post about the microbiome was in part inspired by the coverage of this Science paper “Intestinal Inflammation Targets Cancer-Inducing Activity of the Microbiota.” Interestingly, the coverage of this paper didn’t make Jonathan Eisen happy either: Some studies … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Microbiology, Microbiome, News Media | 3 Comments

How Not to Isolate E. coli

Posted on June 30, 2012 by

If you’re interested in studying what ‘real’ bacteria do–that is, not the microbiological equivalent of anemic inbred lab rats–you have to isolate them from natural samples. Yogi Berra-esque statements notwithstanding, how you isolate bacteria is critical. Methodological details do matter. … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, E. coli, Microbiology, Viruses | 2 Comments

John McCain Wants You to Get Sick When You Eat Spinach

Posted on June 18, 2012 by

While I’m sure Senator McCain doesn’t see it that way, he has decided to beat up unsexy science grants contained in the farm bill. Number ten on his top-ten list of pork projects was this: Pigs! Pork! Get it? Hur … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, E. coli, Fucking Morons, Poop

ZOMG!! TEH E KOLI R IN UR CHICKENZ!! BARGLE BARGLE!!

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

The NY Times recently had a story about a study by a pro-vegan medical group which claimed that 48 percent of chickens bought at supermarkets are contaminated with E. coli. Of course, the vegan group referred to the E. coli … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Food, Propaganda, Public Health | 9 Comments

Are Deer the Reservoir for Shiga-Toxinogenic E. coli (STEC)?

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

THIS IS THE FACE OF THE ENEMY! (from here) A recent paper in Applied and Environment Microbiology describes the frequency of STEC–Shiga toxin producing E. coli–in wild animals. STEC can cause organ failure and death and are found throughout E. … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Food, Microbiology, Public Health

According to Anti-Gay Bigot ‘Logic’, Minnesota Teens Are Having Sex With Deer. Or Something (You’ll Never Think About Bambi the Same Way Again)

Posted on February 8, 2012 by

Lots of people believe HIV entered the human population because people had sex with monkeys, when it is probably due to contact with monkey blood (and other fluids) after killing the monkey for food. As ERV noted, if you tried … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, E. coli, Fucking Morons, Let's Talk About Sex, Baby

The Colicin Plasmid Persistence Problem

Posted on January 12, 2012 by

Yesterday, I described an interesting paper that provides a potential solution to the plasmid persistence problem–how do bacterial mini-chromosomes that can jump from bacterium to bacterium survive? Not only does this paper shed some light on the ‘plasmid persistence problem’, … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Plasmids, Salmonella

Salmonella, E. coli, and Plasmids, Oh My! Solving the Plasmid Persistence Problem and the Virtues of Open Non-Equilibrium Models

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

Ed Yong has some very good coverage of a recent PNAS paper that describes how bacterial mini-chromosomes, known as plasmids and that often carry disease-related or antibiotic resistance genes, can jump from bacterium to bacterium at really high rates when … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Evolution, Plasmids, Salmonella | 3 Comments

Misunderstanding Poop and Sewage

Posted on September 8, 2011 by

Well, sewage to be more precise. One of the harmful, but often unmentioned consequences of flooding is that our sewage systems, often decades old, are completely overwhelmed. This exposes people to sewage: Flooding appears to be the worst problem left … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Microbiology, Viruses | 4 Comments