Environmental Services

The human microbiome, a diverse collection of microorganisms living inside us and on our skin, has attracted considerable attention for its role in a broad range of human health issues. Now, researchers are discovering that the built environment also has a microbiome, which includes a community of potentially-pathogenic bacteria living inside water supply pipes.

This case study explores how St. Mary's Health Care System in Athens, Ga. was the first healthcare institution in northeast Georgia to use UV light to treat high-utilization areas as an adjunct strategy to drive down their rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

The very thought of them makes a person shudder - and scratch. Those bloodsucking bed bugs are endemic in every major city, and they're very hard to get rid of. A massive international research partnership - including the University of Cincinnati - has sequenced the entire genome of the common bed bug, uncovering several traits that also could reveal why they're so resistant to pesticides. The article is one of two papers sequencing the bed bug gene that is published this month in the journal Nature Communications.

This report reviews the current global and national efforts to address antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance, and within this context, explores studies examining potential decreased microbial sensitivity to chemical disinfectants used in the healthcare environment.

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology is the first to report that bed bugs have developed resistance to a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, or neonics, the shortened name. Neonics are the most widely used group of insecticides today, and several products have been developed for bed bug control over the past few years that combine neonics with pyrethroids, another class of insecticide.

Many studies have been conducted on how effective certain pesticides are when they are applied to bed bugs. However, most have not allowed the bed bugs to take a blood meal after being exposed to pesticides, which can change the mortality rates, according to an article in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Researchers from Rutgers University found that bed bugs that were allowed to feed after being treated with insecticides either had greater rates of survival, or they took longer to die than bed bugs that were not allowed to feed after being treated.

Healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) continue to be a challenge for healthcare professionals today. Despite increased attention to infection control protocol and increased focus on personal protection there has not been any sustainable reductions in the spread of infection. This leaves healthcare workers, patients and the general public continually at risk.

Jesuit High School of New Orleans is the first and only prep school in the United States to deploy a high-tech Germ-Zapping Robot™ to wage environmental war by destroying bacteria and potentially deadly pathogens typically found lurking inside gymnasiums, athletic locker rooms, weight training areas, shower and bathroom facilities, and even personal sports equipment.