Nosocomially yours - UPDATE

Do you know, I think I'm falling in love with bacteria a bit. They are so interesting, and have such different, er, personality traits! Some of them look downright cute, like Clostridium tetani, which looks like a tennis racquet because of its endospore. Things are slowly falling into place, I'm starting to believe I may yet learn something during this degree.

Don't forget to wash your fruit and vegetables thoroughly, beware of surfaces where you placed raw meat (your kitchen sink may have more pathogens than the toilet bowl) - and DON'T handle raw meat and touch anything else, have different cutting boards for meat and everything else [thanks Scully!], wash your hands often WITH SOAP and don't forget the faucet you just contaminated, scrub under your nails, don't start taking antibiotics just because, especially if you have the flu because it's VIRAL and it will not do a thing but fuck up your immunity and increase bacterial resistance to medication chances are you WILL need some day.

Are your tetanus shots updated? You do not want to mess with tetanus, believe me, the bacteria may look cute but this is how you die and no doctor will be able to help you. Your jaw will lock, first of all ("lockjaw"), and then slowly, as the toxins travel the neuropaths, all the muscles you usually control will seize up (this is no exaggeration). You will experience severe, painful spasms. You then, also slowly, suffocate because you can't DECIDE to breathe anymore, that's no longer your voluntary option. Very, very painful. Hardly anyone survives. How does this happen, you ask? I'M SO GLAD YOU DID! Small puncture wounds or abrasions (scraped skin) become contaminated, especially if dirty, with C. tetani's spores, which germinate and produce the toxins - it's the toxins that the bacteria produce that kill, actually, not the bacteria per se. The infection remains very often localised and with little inflammation, don't think you'll be alerted by the sight of a huge wound. And you will NOT have much time. If you've never been vaccinated, doing it AFTER the injury will NOT help you, it takes a while for immunity to develop. You need TETANUS IMMUNOGLOBULINS, which have an immediate, short-term effect. You will also STILL need the vaccine for long-term immunisation. If you were vaccinated over five years ago you will need a booster.

One to three shots (depends on which vaccine), at least 10 years of peace of mind, isn't it worth it? So don't be daft, protect yourself and most importantly, your kids.

This was your friendly medical announcement for the day. Now go out and do something dirty in a non-pathogenically related way. Shagging is allowed but remember that paragraph up there? RAW MEAT MAY KILL YOU, so make sure to wrap everything encondomly first should you choose to keep it casual. Resist TEMPTATION in any way you can!

[TG, the title is for you. Turn on your cell phone already!]