MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

This might be odd topic but here it is,
Above my nephew apt lives 2 guys who have
afear of bacteria.
Their always vacuuming and always washing and
they don't use the plubic laundry mat here their very affriad of germs bacteria.
Don't they know that there is bacteria all sound them?
There is bacteria in thier mouths don't they know that?
And yet their afraid of germs and bacteria.

Hi MicroInspector,
You could point out that a healthy person has ten microbe cells in their body to every one human cell, however it is impossible to reason with people who have an unreasonable fear.
Peter.

I knew a woman once, who briefly became a customer. She bought 25 lbs. of beets at a time and a bushel of apples, 50 lbs. of carrots, that sort of thing....... which isn't odd in itself but she lived in an apartment......... into juicing everything, I think. I delivered once to her and she asked me to put the order in a spare room. So I wheeled my two wheel dolly down a little hall, past several doors that were missing their bottoms. Her bathroom door was missing about 8 of it's lowest inches, with ragged and torn shards of wood hanging down. The doors were brown stained luan or tiama ply but at the bottom they were pale and unevenly stained, with sections of framework sticking out where the thin ply was completely gone. Looked like they had been on a half submerged hulk, for about 3 years.
Turns out , she cleaned everything with bleach, you could smell it everywhere and was terrified of germs. She also had cancer and was undergoing chemo.
Very sad and unnerving, really. If you ever hear of a chlorine resistant superbug out there;...... it came from Mississauga!

Before I started grade-school...here in NY/US my older siblings were taught a class:"Personal Hygiene"...or "Hygiene".


Taaught...no fingers in mouth or nose without then promptly washing hands...how to wash hands...no picking at inner nostrils..and why this causes skin 'pimples'..why 'squeezing pimples' about the 'danger zone triangle of nose and it's surroundings can push infection deeper...how to use toilet/bathroom tissue proply to 'wipe'...followed by wash your hands...

how to cough or sneeze,,,quite important information.

I say your neighbors have every right to not trust food from strangers...they have a right to fastidious home cleaning.

When I go out in crowds..everyone touches everything I touch..we all breath the same air...yet a lot of..err..'stuff' under a lot of peoples finger nails!

public health is all our responsibility...I wonder if hygiene is still taught? charlie guevara

Basic ways of life of avoiding bacteria to stay healthy
Normal, but some take it too far,
Like washing hands all the time or avoid people
Let's face it bacteria is apart of our lives
Yet some use bacteria as a excuse to collect money saying
Please give or donate for our research on this in hoping to finding a
Cure.. The jerry lewis telethon was shut down because there was
No research no cure, just to use the money to line their pockets
More cash..
Sad that some are over afraid of common bacteria and some use
It as a excuse to make more money. Very sad...

First off, the MD telethon has never been shut down, nor has the money been used to line any pockets.

Second MD is most certainly NOT caused by any bacterium. Research IS occurring, thanks to the donations raised by this effort.

But we now live in a world of mis-information, pseudo-science, and "alternative facts. Fueled by social media; the playground of second-rate minds. For God's sake, there's a real problem when we get our science from the likes of Jim Carrey.

Carl

I guess MD must be virus or something.
But MD telethon is not on TV much here.

carlh6902 wrote:First off, the MD telethon has never been shut down, nor has the money been used to line any pockets.

Second MD is most certainly NOT caused by any bacterium. Research IS occurring, thanks to the donations raised by this effort.

But we now live in a world of mis-information, pseudo-science, and "alternative facts. Fueled by social media; the playground of second-rate minds. For God's sake, there's a real problem when we get our science from the likes of Jim Carrey.

Carl

EXACTLY..

BillT

Hi all...who is Jim Carrey? (? the actor?) thanks to OP for this thread, microinspector.

Again I say...let those gents fastidiously clean and vacum their apt...perhaps they run an off the books dog/cat grooming buisness out of their home (joke,joke!).

Really..just think of the occurrances of: 'sick cruise ship syndrome'...when all are trapped on a cruise ship the weakest links in hygiene behaviour cause problems for 'all hands on ship'!

Not to turn this into a forensic case...but..(recall Pee Wee Hermans mantra:"there's always that big butt!).. I'm sure your neighbors never expected their vacum cleaner to address bacteria.

Please let's address each others hygiene behaviors..and not guess at what neighbors of folks we know are up to in their private homes. Problems of too much cleaning occurr with toxic chemicals..but this misbehavior less a problem than all the fingers in their mouth short orfer cooks, pot-luck picnic contributors..to my mind. charlie guevara

Each condition has to be looked at as an individual case. For sure, some conditions, and the number of these is increasing over time, that previously had an unknown etiology , are being found to be caused by microorganisms. You have to climb very high in the echelons of the microbiological research community to find people that understand the ramifications of bacterial L-forms or pleomorphism and just how pervasive and dangerous these organisms can be. The average physician or lab tech. is relying on information literally from the dark ages of microbiology( the anti-biotic era), in their assessment of some diseases and valuable therapies.
Just have a look at something as simple as the wikipedia pages for Gerald Domingue and Lida H. Mattman( nominated for a nobel prize) to see where the cutting edge in microbiology is. Gerald Domingue was culturing mutant forms of common staph. and strep. species from a disproportionate number of human tumours, as long ago as the 1970's. Mutated forms that were avoiding detection by synthesizing human trophoblastic hormone.
Modern medicine has been caught completely by surprise by the explosion of mutated bacteria out there and many more conditions will be found to be caused by microorganisms. MS is already on the radar as are certain forms of altzheimers , prostate cancer and surprisingly, lower back pain. The bacteriologists at the beginning of the 20th century, in some cases knew more than we do now.

The thing is, sanitation and hygiene have little effect on these populations of organisms. You can sanitize until you look like Mr. Clean ( he lost his hair by a combination overuse of steroids and using too much bleach) but it is the immune system that is the ultimate arbiter of whether one succumbs to any given infection.

Hahalol
OK...
But homeless shelters is still in question
I been there unfortunately, the building is old Rusty warehouse
I would think a germaphobic would freak out there
I read online that if a shelter had poor ventilation and some had T.B
It would spread.

Yes, it would. Some organisms are more communicable than others and have a sneaky way of introducing themselves to you. They take a long time to incubate and by the time you know you have it, it is well established.
Unfortunately, we developed a false sense of security, regarding our ability to triumph over the microbiological world, due to a short lived successful use of anti-biotics but the resistant and mutant forms are now on the counter attack. Immunity is difficult in tight situations, like your example of a homeless shelter, because natural immunity to something like T.B. is low. It's a particular problem with organisms that have crossed from another species, and homo sapiens has not a history of facing the pathogen, and developing mechanisms of handling it.

Ever since I got my omax m82ez microscope
It has opened a new world to me, understanding of microbes and bacteria and mold and fungus
The only thing us I have not found anything to use my highest objective on.
If you the 1954 ear of the worlds st the end the Martians croaked from bacteria
here on earth.

Some illness like A.I.D.S was well known
And if you had that the flu or a sample cold will kill you.

Here in Arizona in Sunnyslope there was once a satiuim where
T.B paients stay to clear up the T.B bacteriaim.

apochronaut wrote: The thing is, sanitation and hygiene have little effect on these populations of organisms. You can sanitize until you look like Mr. Clean ( he lost his hair by a combination overuse of steroids and using too much bleach) but it is the immune system that is the ultimate arbiter of whether one succumbs to any given infection.

Amen ! to this... and the immune system needs to be kept on its toes (figuratively of course) to function properly.
As a professionnal naturalist I work outdoors most of the time, I live in a house in the woods, I get daily exposure to all kinds of bacteria (and probably viruses), I chop wood, work the garden, etc, and get cuts and stings all over arms & legs all year long (which I very rarely have time to disinfect), in places varying from semi-arid zones to swamps.
I never have more than a very local redness for 1-2 days around a wound, and aside from 1 week of salmonellosis 10 years ago and the occasional flu I never catch anything...

A little bit of dirt is good for the immune system. It should practice on something. Otherwise we catch supergerms that can't be killed by ordinary antibiotics.

If we all maintained a .01% level of Glenlivet (18year) we would not be concerned about
this. I strongly believe this because a member recommended it. Last year I spent a month
on a Princess Cruise, the ship had 4 touchless handwashing stations and 2 hand sanitizer stands
at every entrance to every source of food. There was always an attendant, or two, to greet
us, and to thank us for washing our hands. None of it helped my wife's seasickness!

Dale wrote:If we all maintained a .01% level of Glenlivet (18year) we would not be concerned about
this. I strongly believe this because a member recommended it. Last year I spent a month
on a Princess Cruise, the ship had 4 touchless handwashing stations and 2 hand sanitizer stands
at every entrance to every source of food. There was always an attendant, or two, to greet
us, and to thank us for washing our hands. None of it helped my wife's seasickness!

There have been several outbreaks of enteric diseases- mostly Norwalk virus- on cruise ships. At least 2 Princess Cruises were cut short in what must have been holidays from hell.