Researchers have actually trained a beagle named Cliff to detect the intestinal bacteria Clostridium difficile on patients and in stool samples that were collected from infected patients in the Netherlands. This infection is common in hospitals and long-term treatment facilities. Infection with the contagious C. diff results in diarrhea that has been responsible for the deaths of up to 14,000 Americans each year. Having a dog sniff out the infection may seem absurd until you consider it can take up to a week to detect the infection using traditional laboratory techniques. Being able to detect the infection early may prevent deadly outbreaks from occuring.
Sources:
British Medical Journal
More like this
Because this week is really hectic, I just want to follow up on this post I wrote about MRSA.
Chronic infection is, in a way, the new emerging infectious disea
Thankfully for the readers, most of the scientific literature I read doesn't make it into this blog. But one paper about a comparative drug trial had some very interesting results. In short, obesity and smoking are significant risk factors for post-operative infections.
Knock knock.
Whos there?
Not XMRV in African blood donors or HIV/AIDS patients.
This dog truly is "man's best friend"!