UGA ecologist finds another cause of antibiotic resistance
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While the rapid emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has prompted the medical community, non-profit organizations, public health officials and the national media to educate the public to the dangers of misusing and overusing antibiotics, the University of Georgia’s J. Vaun McArthur is concerned that there’s more to the problem than the misuse of common medications.
McArthur, a senior research ecologist with the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Odum School of Ecology, believes environmental contaminants may be partly to blame for the rise in bacterial resistance, and he tested this hypothesis in streams on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
The 310-square mile site near Aiken, South Carolina, east of the Savannah River, was closed to the public in the early 1950s to produce materials used in nuclear weapons. This production led to legacy waste, or contamination, in limited areas of the site. This waste impacted some of the streams in the industrial areas.
Don’t Blame Breast Density; $$$ Toxicity; ‘Nurse Ratched’ Returns
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Age and body weight, not breast-tissue density, drive a woman’s risk of breast cancer, according to a study from Johns Hopkins.
An 8-year-old Utah girl has developed only the 35th known case of secretory breast carcinoma, a rare form of breast cancer that occurs in young girls.
The “financial toxicity” of cancer is not unique to the U.S., as an American oncologist learned over dinner with two colleagues practicing in the nation of Georgia.
Two pediatric oncologists share their insights into to dealing with the “unsung heartache” of caring for children with cancer.