Trip Tip a Day

June 7, 2011 Germany's terrific scientists at the Robert Koch Institute appear hampered by a bureaucratic maze that does not exist in health care crisis management in the USA. Der Spiegel Online states "The country (Germany), they say, is surprisingly ill-equipped to handle outbreaks on this scale because of its complex bureaucratic structures and regionally fragmented division of responsibilities. Experts say Germany's alert system is  rudimentary compared to those in other developed nations. " http://www.rki.de/cln_144/nn_217400/EN/Home/EHEC__O104__H4,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/EHEC_O104_H4.pdf "While news of a potentially deadly outbreak can take up to two weeks to reach top German health authorities, other developed nations such as the United States and Japan, have instituted early warning mechanisms." http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,766969,00.html CDC updates statement: http://www.cdc.gov...

European E. coli outbreak June 2011 Of concern to anyone traveling through or sending a loved one to Europe right now is the deadliest outbreak of E. coli in history. Here are my tips, as a microbiologist and Mom: 1)  We all know not to eat raw salad in India.  Apply the same to Europe (FOR NOW). 2)  We all know not to eat unwashed fruits in India.  Apply the same to Europe. 3)  Health depts. in Europe have NOT linked the bacterium to a food YET.  So, make sure any hamburger type dishes are cooked to the medium to well done point.  That mean NO pink.  Could there still be an undercooked meat link?  Let's be safe here and say maybe. 4)  Cutting through an unwashed melon could bring bacteria from the outside of the melon to the inside where you eat it.  Wash your melon!  Which brings us to point #5... 5)  If it's from a restaurant and it's raw, and you can't see how it has been washed or prepared, then j...