Biosensors, the newest way to detect a bio-terrorism attack

Here is a great article about new jellyfish sensors are being tested to rapidly detect an attack using bio-threat agents.

Leggo my Listeria!

I dont know how many of you have heard but there is an EGGO waffle shortage! GASSSPP!! I know its tragic but apparently our little friend L.monocytogenes has struck again and has crippled the marketshare of frozen delectable goodies....We wrote about listeria awhile back you can check it out here http://thepetridishmicrobe.blogspot.com/2009/06/listeria-possibly-used-as-drug-delivery.html. Up top is the press release

Consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially serious disease. The most common manifestation of listeriosis is meningitis, which has symptoms of high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as serious and sometimes fatal infections to infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems such as persons with chronic diseases or taking chemotherapy for cancer. Below is a nice photo is a distinct umbrella shape on the motility tube which is produced by L.monoctogenes they are also small gram positive rods, and are beta hemolytic on sheeps blood agar.

NYCers get their own Flu Line!

Hey if you live at the center of the Empire, you can just call 311 and speak to a nurse about your flu symptoms....or you could just google it like everyone else!

Flu View

For those interested in morbid things (if you are here you probably are) or epi, Flu View by the CDC is a great tool to stay on top of what is going on during Flu Season

Switch and Swine!

Rapid EIA (enzyme immunoassay) is often used in hospital laboratories as a quick way to diagnose patients with potenially risky dieseases like influenza, so that medication may be quickly administered.
Using only the rapid EIA for the detection of Flu has always been considered a risk and was generally backed up by viral culture and/or PCR. However, with the increasing number of emergency room visits and the high strain on the healthcare system many hospitals are relying on tests that are inaccurate, and could ultimately have up to a 50% fail rate.

This is a pretty decent article on the dangers of diagnoses on rapid tests alone, but it does not get into the nitty gritty like we like here, of course the best resource is the CDC published guidelines which is presented here http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/rapid_testing.htm.

Wash your hands while singing Happy Birthday!
Sneeze into your arm!

Back!

Back from a long hiatus! Why do I leave things right before they get good, my apologies out there to all the folks who waited with baited breath for when I would return, but a little squabble with a publishing platform wont stop this machine! I will be doing crazy updates and get this blog on track for the readers because we all love it!

Update! Microbe Meetup, Can you Dig it??

For the original post check here: http://thepetridishmicrobe.blogspot.com/2009/06/microbe-meetup-can-you-dig-it.html

Update: Ok so we have a GNCB oxidase neg, cat pos, with some bpolar staining and raised colonies associated with an appendectomy that does not present as an enteric pathogen. I have heard screams of setting up an API 20NE, but unfortunately came out with low selectivity! So I will help out of course we were going to set up a urea slant, TSI, simmons citrate, and motility here is what we got:

TSI: Acid over acid with no gas, and no h2s
Urea: Positive
Simmons: Negative
Motility: Non Motile

So far I have heard salmonella, shigella, but the gram stain would rule that out, and someone else emailed me with: The gram stain looks like a Y.pestis and the adentitis would be in line with that, however not really an enteric like pathogen.....hmmm sounds interesting, just for that maybe we will incubate everything at 25c to see what might come, you never know with these crazy bugs, check back tommorow for the results.