Word: staphylococci
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...make it still more absorbent, they soaked it in a preparation of benzethonium, a modern, potent germ killer. Then they tested the sutures in mice, and got 100% protection against infection for at least five days, even when the animals were challenged with a massive injection of pus-forming staphylococci...
...fashioned cloth towels, seven were so saturated with germs that no count could be made. Another 63 averaged 16,527 germs per square centimeter, but even worse than the germs' quantity was their quality. Half the towels were loaded with staphylococci, which cause boils and wound infections. A third of the towels bore colon bacteria, which spread dysentery, typhus and typhoid...
Surprisingly, the doctors found that many hospitals and clinics also use common towels. And some of the hospital bugs were the deadliest of all staphylococci-the strains that are resistant to most forms of penicillin and many other antibiotics. Among the worst places was a maternity ward, where women picked up infections and took them home with their babies...
...research team headed by Surgeon Harvey R. Bernard at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis has spent years seeking answers to these fundamental questions. One clear conclusion: surgeons, nurses and patients themselves carry most of the dangerous germs, especially the resistant strains of staphylococci, into the operating theater. Relatively few appear in the air, and it makes little difference whether the air is continually drawn fresh from outdoors, or whether it is recirculated after filtering...
...infected to begin with, 401 got prophylactic antibiotics, while 619 got none. In Surgery, Gynecology & Obstetrics, Dr. Johnstone reports the astonishing result: among those who got the antibiotics, 25% developed infections-almost three times the rate for the other patients. There were four times as many infections caused by staphylococci. Those World War II battlefield germs, notes Dr. Johnstone, were far easier to kill...