A small study by researchers in Spain finds that dangerous germs are lurking on playgrounds. [1]
For the study, a team of scientists tested sandboxes and searched for Clostridium difficile, or C. diff. They found it alright, and it was the drug-resistant variety.
The potentially deadly, drug-resistant “superbug,” carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), is more widespread in U.S. hospitals than previously thought, an earlier-released study has found. [1]
Researchers looked for cases of infections caused by CRE in a sample of 4 U.S. hospitals – 3 in the Boston area and 1 in California – and identified numerous varieties of the bacterium. [2]
The world’s oceans are filled with plastic. More than 5 million pieces of it are floating around, being eaten by fish and passed up the food chain. Every year, more than 100,000 marine animals and seabirds are killed by plastic waste.
Illustration: P. Huey. Sourced from U.T. Bornscheuer, Science 351:1154 (2016).
Of the 342 million tons of plastic produced each year, a tiny fraction of it – about 14% – is recyclable.
Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say 1,300 patients who had open-heart surgery at a central Pennsylvania hospital since 2011 may have been exposed to a bacterial infection that has killed 4 patients.
At least 8 patients treated at WellSpan York Hospital in York, Pennsylvania, have developed the bacterial infection, caused by nontuberculous mycobacterium, or NTM, from a medical device used during open-heart surgery. Four of those individuals have died, though it hasn’t been confirmed that the infection was the primary cause. [1]
