Some of you may have heard of the tragic death of a 12 year old boy living in our nation's capital, who died when untreated dental issues caused a deadly infection. Deamonte Driver died when an infected tooth lead to a brain infection. His dental problems had not been addressed because his bother had so many rotted teeth that his mother was concentrating on getting those issues fixed.
The children had lost their Medicaid and his mother did not have the money to have his tooth removed, nor the dentists willing to treat him.

For more on the Deamonte Driver story, click here:

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Minute particles of food soil on surfaces can help bacteria survive industrial cleaning procedures in food processing factories, which may lead to possible contamination of food with pathogenic bacteria, say researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Minute particles of food soil on surfaces can help bacteria survive industrial cleaning procedures in food processing factories, which may lead to possible contamination of food with pathogenic bacteria, say researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom.

TUESDAY, Sept. 9 (HealthDay News) -- A national campaign to teach parents how to protect kids from skin infections caused by dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria was launched this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

MRSA, a type of staph bacteria that's resistant to certain antibiotics, can cause severe infections in people in hospitals and other health care facilities. It can also cause skin infections in healthy people who haven't recently been hospitalized, the CDC said.

FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A molecule that tames bacteria that cause gastroenteritis, tularemia and severe diarrhea has been identified by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

The finding, they say, could help in the development of new drugs to combat increasing microbial resistance to antibiotics.

The molecule LED209 blocks a bacterial receptor, called QseC sensor kinase, from biochemical signals from the host that trigger bacteria to release toxins and cause illness.

I'm wondering if anyone has well water, rather than city water. We have well water and it's fine for showering and the baby swimming pool etc but we only use the filtered water for drinking and cooking. I was under the impression that was fairly standard operating procedure when one has a well water system.

However, neighbors of ours use our mutual well water for drinking, cooking and all their needs and have never had a problem. They have young children like us and none of their kids have ever been sick (that they know of) from use of well water.

THURSDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute say that have solved the mystery of how cranberry juice prevents urinary tract infections.

Their study, published in the current issue of Colloids and Surfaces: B, shows that the juice changes the thermodynamic properties of bacteria in the urinary tract to form an energy barrier that prevents infections from developing.

TUESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- With the number of people sickened in the nationwide salmonella outbreak now standing at 869, with 107 hospitalizations, U.S. officials acknowledged Tuesday that they were no closer to identifying the source of the contaminant.

My husband and I don't agree, maybe you can help!

Cautionary tale about food safety. Excellent reminder. One interesting point from the article is that half of the fridges aren't cold enough between 32 and 40 degrees -- to keep bacteria from growing on food. Another is meat should be thawed in the refrigerators instead of on counters.

http://features.us.reuters.com/wellbeing...

Here's to happy summer eating.