Well my Mother had her large American fridge sent over form South Africa. You guessed it, it grew some very interesting mold, which at the time my Father used to harvest and take to the boffins at Beechams to create new penicillin from. I understand it was a gold mine of bacteria!
Sadly due to misuse in the whole food chain antibiotics are a scourge. They have also become ineffective due to the disruption of the Shikimate Pathway from soil to table.
Added to this the use of DDT still breaking down in the soil, heavy metal pollution in soil, the us of glyphosphate and surficants which are themselves disrupters and the common obsession with hygiene using anti-bacterial products and perfumes, along with sulphites and artificial perfumes our bodies just can't cope.
I suppose the sensible thing to do would be make the pathology department in hospitals more accessible, so that fast track swab tests could be managed and specific penicillins and antibiotics used when needed. Also leaving these drugs in the hands of the public without supervision is a big problem. If someone doesn't finish the course or still has an infection at the end of the prescribed course the bacteria can develop resistance to treatment. I think the home nursing service needs to be developed to ensure the use and monitoring of these drugs. They were a blessing, let's keep them as one.
We are meant to have a protective layer of bacteria on our skin. Destroying this bacteria both on our skin and in our gut is allowing all sorts of pathogens to proliferate.
When we were children we only got one bath a week, and had to wash in the morning. Toothpaste didn't have sodium laurel sulphate in it, and neither did soap. It certainly wasn't perfumed a lot. Mostly My mother bought Boots soap, and Pears soap for washing our faces with.
All our washing, especially the cotton sheets, duly darned and patched were boil washed once a week in a twin tub and boil washed. The other thing we were made to do at the merest hint of a sore throat or cold was to use a saline nose bath of warm water and salt. Something I still do today when needed.
My Father grew our veg on an allotment, my Mother made jam and wine! It was hard work sometimes, but we were pretty healthy children.
The veg and fruit was pesticide free, and apart from a wash and picking out catapillars it wasn't sterilised, fumigated with CO2 or covered in wax. Staph is quite happy in anaerobic conditions.
The interesting thing is, there are many ways of stopping them from reproducing that don't require antibiotics. These should be kept as a last reserve.
Gut flora and good digestion, fast elimination, and a healthy gut wall are our first defence to ingested pathogens.
Skin flora is our external defence. Destroy this at peril.
The best thing to do is work hard at preserving and supporting our good bacteria. Eating a high sugar, or artificial sweetener diet, combined with food additives just doesn't help. It feeds Candida, whom I believe have a close symbiotic relationship to Staph.
There are a number of things that break down the cell wall of Staph. Copper is one of them. I suppose it works the same way as it does on slugs, however the charge from it destroys Staph on contact. Bring back copper doorknobs and copper money. Copper can be introduce into fabrics such as cubicle curtains and clothing in hospitals.
Olive leaf extract is pretty powerful stuff as an ant microbial, antifungal and anti inflammatory. Good to have it handy and take a course at the onset of winter.
Nettle tea, and nettle soup have gut cleansing and tetoxing properties.
The tannins in strong black unsweetened breakfast tea, and a glass of wine are also good at slowing Staph down.
Heather, some species of heather honey are just as good as Manuka, and much cheaper. My Grandmother used to make me a liquorice and heather honey drink with a little vinegar for a sore throat.
Oregano, both wild Mediterranean and Himalayan are the best, and have significant bug killing properties. I make a room spray by putting a cotton ball with Oregano on it in the vacuum cleaner. Obviously high filtration bags, and I tuck the cotton ball between the bag and filters.
We underuse whey. This can be a huge source of probiotics when it is subsequently cultured and fed to animals. They deserve to be healthy, and culturing the whey with keffir is a good way to aid them, rather than letting them get sick by feeding them crap... literally.
And a cup of kefir in a cool bath can't hurt.
To live on a highly processed probiotic fee diet seems madness. To kill off our gut flora with antibiotics not a good idea.
I was looking at at the way Kishk is made by fermenting it first, then salting it, and then drying it in the sun.
Fermentation to destroy the cell wall, and get at the sponge mechanism in the Staph, then salt to dehydrate the Staph, then drying in the Sun for a dose of UV and a bleach. The salt would break down as the grain dries and form chlorine which would evaporate. Clever eh... the Middle East have been making a staple like this for a thousand years!
We just have to change how we eat, wash ourselves, do our laundry.. you need about 70 degree wash to kill Staph. Low temperature washing of synthetic clothes is a breeding ground for Staph.
Better to wear cotton and Metis that can be given a hot wash for undies, and use wool and natural fibres that are naturally self cleaning. Then we won't have all those synthetic filaments ending up in sewage outflows.
Anyway, on a different subject, That Crimea Bridge is an engineering masterpiece. Well done Russia, the video of barging that bridge section was spectacular! As a Marine Engineer my Father would have loved watching it. He showed me all sorts of calculations about tidal flow, and how piers and marine structures affect silt deposits.
I like Engineering solutions too. It is exciting that Sir Richard Branson is getting behind Maglev trains. Good idea to run them alongside canals, and that the tunnels can and should be buried.
Every era has its technological masterpieces and visionaries.
I see that the heat from computer servers is now being utilised in Sweden for community heating. Great bit of joined up thinking and a good business model. I wonder if excess heat can be used to keep growing sheds warm for exotic fruit production. It could be possible to build Biomes next to computer plants. Ha, that's funny, plants growing plants...
Why on earth the US is not investing in infrastructure development and food security instead of being consumed by the war mongering infighting of their political system I have no idea.