Bacteria

The biodefense lab at Fort Detrick in Frederick began a thorough search of its freezers yesterday to ensure that it has an accurate inventory of the deadly bacteria, viruses and toxins accumulated there over a period of 40 years, Defense Department officials said. Col. John P. Skvorak, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases, ordered a "stand-down," or pause in ordinary operations, and a complete inventory last week after 20 vials of "biological select agents and toxin" (BSAT)

Harford crash victim identified as N.Y. woman State police have identified the passenger killed Saturday in a single-vehicle accident in Harford County as Lisa C. Francois, 33, of Brooklyn, N.Y. Francois was pronounced dead at the scene after the accident about 2:30 p.m. Saturday in which a 2006 Honda Civic traveling in the left lane of Interstate 95 South near Route 543 crossed two lanes into the right shoulder and overturned several times. The driver, Jocelin Drew, 55, and a front-seat passenger, Amos Headley, 67, both of Roosevelt, N.Y., were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with injuries that police said were not life-threatening.

The season of sniffing, coughing and sneezing is upon us, and what more motivation do we need to be diligent about washing our hands? Hand washing is one of the most important things people can do to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses, whether you're at home preparing food or out at the mall, says Jennifer Caudle, director of the family medicine section in the division of General Internal Medicine at Sinai Hospital. "It is the holiday season and people are out and about eating and shopping, and they are touching lots of things, lots of times."

Anyone who's ever driven behind a truck hauling chickens knows to expect a powerful odor and even a few feathers in its wake. But poultry carriers also apparently trail an airborne plume of potentially harmful bacteria, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers. The results suggest that motorists and those who live along roads traveled by chicken trucks may be exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the researchers say. They urged further study and possibly changing transport methods in areas of intense poultry production such as the Delmarva Peninsula.

Beach closings and warnings about unhealthy water declined last year in Maryland and across the United States but remain a problem, an environmental group reported yesterday. Closures and swimming advisories at the state's 68 Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean beaches were down 23 percent last year, compared with 2006, according to the report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Overall, bacteria levels at Maryland beaches failed federal health standards 7 percent of the time in 2007, down from 12 percent in 2006.

Agency honors green workers The Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund today will host "One Year Green," a celebration of MAIF's environmental achievements. MAIF employees who have demonstrated a commitment to making eco-friendly solutions routine in their daily operations will be honored with a "Green Thumb" award, and MAIF's Earth Day pledge tree will be dedicated on the grounds of MAIF's headquarters in Annapolis. "MAIF is committed to working toward a more environmentally friendly business model," said M. Kent Krabbe, executive director for MAIF.

The building where Johns Hopkins Hospital cares for its transplant patients is on water restrictions this week after routine tests of the water system on July 2 turned up evidence of the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease. A hospital spokesman said no patients or employees have been infected by the organism, which can cause a lung infection fatal in 5 percent to 30 percent of cases. "No one is sick. Nor has anyone at the hospital been identified, either patient or staff, as having picked up a Legionella infection," said Hopkins spokesman David March.

Higher education level might mean lower BMI When it comes to a healthy body weight, education matters. Highly educated men and women in the U.S. have a lower average body mass index than their less-educated counterparts, according to a new comparison of international data. Conversely, highly educated men and women in poor countries where malnutrition is prevalent tend to have a higher BMI than less-educated people. In short, education appears to confer a healthy buffer against obesity, or malnutrition, depending on the country of origin.

Mother was right. Our shoes are filthy, and we'd be smart to leave them at the door, like they do in Japan. Even microbiologist Charles P. Gerba was surprised to discover what we track into the house on our footwear. "I'm starting to make myself paranoid," he said. "It seems like we step in a lot more poop than I thought." Gerba is a professor in the University of Arizona's Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science. He's spent years studying how humans spread microbes around and "share" them wherever they go. But when he was asked by the Rockport Co. whether he thought throwing shoes in the washer made hygienic sense, he told them, "I don't know.

A panel of experts, assembled in part by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is recommending that the United States ban the routine use of antibiotics in farm animal feed. The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production also proposes better tracking of diseases among farm animals, to help prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to humans. "We've got too many animals too close together producing too much waste without any realistic way of handling the waste," said John Carlin, a farmer and former Kansas governor who chairs the commission.