Word: bacteria
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Cherish the memory. The all-American egg breakfast has become as strong a social taboo as smoking a fat stogie in a crowded elevator. Cholesterol fears initially scrambled the egg industry, but the real threat is the current panic over salmonella. This toxic raw-egg bacteria caused more than 2,000 cases of food poisoning in the U.S. last year. As Gourmet magazine declared, "Dishes made with raw or undercooked eggs -- Caesar salad and eggs Benedict -- are in danger of becoming extinct...
While the health risk is real, so too is the potential for eggsessive overreaction. Even though cooking kills salmonella bacteria, the hard-boiled food industry has fallen in love with the safety and shelf life of pasteurized liquid eggs. Since last fall, Hyatt hotels have dished up fresh eggs only when a guest explicitly requests them sunny-side up. Diners are not told of this shell game, for as a Hyatt spokeswoman insists, "to the average person's taste, I don't think you'd notice." Liquid eggs have become the norm at fast- food chains (Burger King...
Scientists do not know exactly why cholera periodically explodes into epidemics. The bacteria that cause it are part of the aquatic ecosystem, helping to break down dead shellfish. Cholera germs travel up the food chain by attaching themselves to plankton, which are eaten by fish and then by people. Studies by Rita Colwell, professor of microbiology at the University of Maryland, suggest that a plankton bloom, a rapid growth like the one reported off the coast of Peru earlier this year, may help trigger epidemics...
...gravest threats to anyone severely burned or injured -- or to soldiers wounded in battle -- is massive, system-wide bacterial infection. Such infection with toxic, "gram-negative" bacteria kills up to 100,000 Americans a year, many of them surgical patients and trauma victims. Last week researchers at the University of California at San Diego reported a major victory in the war against these microbes. Using injections of a biotech product called monoclonal antibodies in patients suffering from toxic infections and septic shock, they reduced the expected death rate 40%, in some cases rescuing patients from the brink of death...
Gram-negative bacteria -- so named because they do not retain a laboratory stain devised by the Danish bacteriologist Christian Gram -- are usually harmless. They reside on the skin and in the gut, where they aid in digestion. But any significant disruption to the body's immune response -- caused, for instance, by severe burns, chemotherapy or major abdominal surgery -- allows these rod-shaped bacteria to multiply out of control and invade other parts of the body, eventually entering the bloodstream. Once there, one part of the bacterial cell wall called endotoxin can trigger a cascade of lethal effects, culminating in multiple...