50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lessons we should have learned, October 26, 2002
This review is from: The Secret Life of Germs : Observations and Lessons from a Microbe Hunter (Hardcover)
Do you remember your mother and your teachers always getting after you to wash your hands? And sometimes a little voice inside of you said, "My hands already look clean." And you didn't bother to wash them?
You might not think it worthwhile to read a book that nags you on this very same subject, especially if you are a physician or hospital care worker. But, as this author points out, hospital-acquired infections are among the biggest public health threats in America and they're on the rise. The often drug-resistant germs kill more than twice as many people as traffic accidents (in fact, these infections kill more people per year than all accidental deaths including car crashes, fires, burns, falls, etc.) and cost an estimated $4.5 billion a year.
Those are astonishing statistics--something to be expected from a medieval pest hole, not a modern hospital.
Just yesterday (10/25/2002), the government issued guidelines urging doctors and nurses to abandon the ritual of washing their hands with soap and water between patients, and instead rub on fast-drying alcohol gels to kill more germs. The author of "The Secret Life of Germs" also favors germicides over simple soap and water. He's done his research and does not feel that germs will develop resistance to these products, because they do not kill selectively like antibiotics do.
Be sure to read the section on "The (Not So) Sweet Smell of Human Flora." You might be surprised by some of the causes of chronic bad breath---and the remedies (chew a wad a parsley or celery seed after eating garlic).
In fact this book recommends protective response strategies for almost all of those times when you might find yourself in a germ-laden environment. After hospitals, public restrooms are the scariest (yes, your mother was right about them, too). The author recommends specific techniques for washing your hands before and after using public facilities. Unfortunately, another one of his protective response strategies--close the lid of the seat before flushing--can't be implemented in a restroom stall, because there are no lids. This is a problem because "flushing the toilet can send small drops of aerosolized fecal matter as far as twenty feet into the air."
The least you can do is close the lid at home, especially if your toothbrush happens to be stored in the open, less than twenty feet away from your toilet.
The sections on pets, fast food, municipal water supplies and leftovers are also grim. Did you know that the bacterium 'Listeria monocytogenes,' the cause of listeriosis food poisoning, resists freezing and actually thrives at normal refrigeration temperatures? The author has a list of nineteen protective response strategies for eating and drinking. You really should check them out, especially if you are fond of fast foods, are giving or attending a party where food is served buffet-style, or are immuno-suppressed.
"The Secret Life of Germs" is not a fun book, but it is essential reading for those of us who are concerned about our health or the health of others (Saddam Hussein is actually practicing good hygiene when he makes people scrub up before shaking hands with him).
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A readable, fact-packed manual for germophobes, March 12, 2002
This review is from: The Secret Life of Germs : Observations and Lessons from a Microbe Hunter (Hardcover)
Germophobes unite! If you're the type of person (as I am) who washes his or her hands several times a day, usually the first thing I do when I get home, avoids putting fingers to mouth or nose, doesn't touch doorknobs if they can be avoided, flushes public toilets with the sole of your shoe-covered foot, etc., etc., then this is a book to further your phobia. You will be justified. Prof Tierno, who has impressive academic credentials and a claim to fame as "the man who helped solve the mystery behind toxic shock syndrome" sounds a very stringent warning here about the dangers of the wrong microbes in the wrong places. He is, I must report, a bit of a germophobe himself, but a learned one. He sprinkles his text with what he calls "Protective Response Strategies" to help us maneuver our way through the microbial jungle that lives in, on and all around us. The first response strategy is on "How to wash your hands."
I've always had a small problem with that. Not at home, where the germs are MY germs, but in public places, especially restrooms. Is it better to just go in, relieve yourself, and exit, being careful not to touch the door handle, or any surface someone else may have touched? (Where there's a handle to pull open the door, I try to grab it with one finger at the very top, thinking nobody else is likely to have grabbed it there.) Or should I stop to wash? But if I stop to "wash" that means I have to touch the faucet, but how can I not touch it last, which may be worse than not washing at all? Tierno has the answer: turn the water off with a paper towel in your hand. Another problem is how to get that paper towel into the trash cylinder without touching the spring-loaded opening. Sometimes what I do is push it open with the towel in my hand and try to drop the towel before it springs shut. Usually it lands on the floor. I used to feel bad about that, but Tierno has a suggestion for places that don't have waste receptacles that has made me feel better: "Drop the towel on the floor. If enough people do so, there will soon be a receptacle there, as there should be." (p. 29)
"Germs" in Tierno's usage are microbes, viruses, bacteria, protozoa, yeast, molds, etc. He gives a wealth of information about many of them, how they spread, how they cause disease, and what we can do about lessening our chance of catching something horrible. He addresses various health issues, and traces the now global spread of disease, from AIDs to Ebola to Legionnaires, to the new threat from tuberculosis and weapons grade anthrax, to rhinoviruses ("nose viruses"), which cause colds, and hantaviruses, which can kill you, and beyond. An interesting (and unsettling) point he makes is that some germs, like the ubiquitous Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus, which usually lives peacefully on our skin, can become lethal if they get to the wrong place in the body. Also there is the very unsettling possibility that a germ may mutate from one that our immune system has in control to one that kills us.
Well, germs are not going anywhere. They were here long before we were, and they'll surely be here long after we are gone. We need to make our peace with them, learn to live with them (multicellular life would be impossible without microbes to break down dead tissue, to produce oxygen, to serve as the base of the food chain, etc.) and reduce their noxious effects. Tierno's book may not make you feel any easier about the invisible little devils that make up perhaps the majority of the biomass on the planet (most of it underground, it now appears), but it will make you feel more knowledgeable, and you will perhaps gain a grudging respect for their amazing abilities.
By the way, a gram of human fecal matter contains about one trillion microbes. A gram of matter from the surface of our teeth contains about one hundred billion microbes. And that sweet saliva we used to exchange when we were young, despite being a good digestive fluid, contains about one hundred million microbes per milliliter. (p. 46)
Finally I want to note that Tierno has solved (for me at least) a very strange mystery that has been making news lately. Childhood asthma rates in the US have increased greatly in recent years, while some authorities have noted that rates in the Third World are lower than rates in the United States. (pp. 166-167) How can this be? Tierno writes, "One reason that childhood asthma rates seem to be lower in the Third World is very likely the fact that several million Third World children a year die at very early ages..." He adds, "...many Third World children simply don't live long enough to be recorded as having asthma..." (p. 167). Additionally, he notes on page 168, "If we are looking for an explanation for the 158 percent increase in asthma in the United States over the past two decades, we might reasonably begin by noticing that the same period has seen a large increase in the number of people living in poverty, thanks to big increases in immigration."
One more thing: There was a Seinfeld TV episode in which Elaine's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Puddy, is a member of a fictional (I think) organization called "Germophobes Anonymous." If it had a manual, Prof. Tierno's very readable, but rather disquieting book would serve very well indeed.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This SECRET SHOULD BE LET OUT!!, December 15, 2001
This review is from: The Secret Life of Germs : Observations and Lessons from a Microbe Hunter (Hardcover)
This is a topic that many would think is a sleeper and perhaps meant for eggheads. The author made it more than relevant and exciting. The style was quite conversational. The text funny at times, serious at others. But always kept me interested.
I originally got the book to learn more about Bioterrorism. After reading a few pages, decided I had to read all of it! Thoroughly enjoyed it. The general approach of fitting the specifics of germs into the realm of biology was fascinating. Having some neuroscience training, naturally I was more drawn to some sections (Mad Cow disease and relationship to human disorders, etc.). But this author greatly expanded my appreciation of the ubiquitous place that microbe generated disease has in our daily lives. He also revealed the constant struggle between deleterious and beneficial germs we are constantly encountering in our everyday lives.
His truly simple recommendations that can cut our risk of disease by 50+% should be the basis of a public service campaign. Since they're not, you have to read the book to realize the fruits of this wise man's knowledge.
The allusions to mutualism vs. parasitism were also themes that made this a more relevant and fun read. It gave a perspective to where the dangerous germs fit into the evolutionary spectrum. The explanation of the fit of evolution's random, chaotic and constant effect on our relationship with germs was great. I want to read more.
I hope this author gives us more. I won't miss it. That's for sure!!
Stu Goldberg, Ph.D.
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