Good Post, soficrow... I know we have our issues on other threads, but is a great find!
Hospitals, unfortunately have become automated genetic engineering facilities of a sort. The combination of antibiotic usage, sick people, and a
closed space is the perfect environment for three traits to become rapidly transferred: 1)antibiotic resistance genes, 2)Virulence gene, 3) and
"community acquisition" genes.
The first two transfers are more-or-less firmly entrenched. Bacteria have been swapping
antibiotic resistance genes for decades now. It used to be that these resistant strains would be outcompeted by other strains once antibiotic usage
stopped. Not so anymore.
Additionally, the most resistant strains in the past have been largely opportunistic, and not very virulent. All of this has changed in the past
decade or so, in that resistant varieties are also acquiring genes for increased virulence. IOW, the resistant strains are no longer just
opportunists, but are primary sources of infection.
Finally, people who were relatively healthy in the past weren't in too much danger, due to the opportunistic and nosocomial natures of resistant
organisms. The fact that these genes for resistance and virulence are now being picked up in the community is scary indeed. Honestly, I cringe when I
hear someone cough or sneeze around me, and I pretty much can't handle eating food I didn't prepare myself.
does anyone have the gear (minimal) and willingness to conduct a little experiment which could yield a workable 'phage culture for use on
these sores?
i mean all you need to do is cultivate the stuff (pathogen) in vitro and add various nasty +'**S to a series of samples, if the sample dies it might
just be a bacteriophage...
Technically... I have the resources... my boss, and the tech that work in our lab wouldn't want me handling sewage in our hood though. Come to think
of it, I don't want to handle sewage in our hood... or really anywhere for that matter.
We actually did trials with phages on tomatoes this summer. They didn't work as well as I had hoped, and honestly the process is tricky.. you've got
to continously update the phages you're using in response to the changing population. In a 5 month growing season, I think we used 12 different phage
formulations.
I think phage therapy holds a lot of promise, but won't be available for human use for sometime.
Great stuff guys.
Anybody have a recipe for a topical ointment that uses both salt and honey?
Not sea salt, but honey itself has antibacterial properties for the same reason that salt does... osmotic potential. Indeed, I have a friend who's a
physician.... did some work for some time in S. Africa on a mission.... one of the preferred treatments for bedsores in the bush hospital he worked at
was applying honey to the wound... I would imagine the honey wasn't raw, but it was nonetheless... standard honey that they in fact purchased at the
local market. According to him, the honey was more effective at curing bed sores than anything modern he'd seen attempted.
) 
but anyone
who warns aganst the industry's madness is considered a doomsayer.
