I wanted to give a shout-out to our Musing About Microbes blogger, Nancy Haberstich, who just presented the readers of our GermStop blog, One Mother to Another, with a very interesting tidbit about the contamination of handbags. I’m one of those gals who is careful not to let my handbag touch those surfaces that have a decidedly strong “ick” factor going for them, so this made me chuckle! I've also been known to spray my luggage wheels and exterior with a multi-purpose surface disinfectant after arriving home from my destination. (And yes, at the risk of sounding like a germ phobe, I'm one of those people who removes her shoes in the foyer -- I really don't need to track in the outside grime!) Check out Nancy's blog by clicking HERE.

I’m convinced that celebrities do more for the awareness of health issues than anything else. When you have the high-profile illnesses of people such as Patrick Swayze and deaths of someone like Farrah Fawcett – and now Michael Jackson – it gets people thinking less about mortality and more about the quality of the days they have left on this earth. Swayze’s pancreatic cancer, Fawcett’s anal cancer and Jackson’s cardiac arrest and long history of other health problems might be enough to convince folks who think they are untouchable by disease to make an appointment with their physician. The danger, of course, is sending hypochondriacs into a frenzy and driving inappropriate over-utilization of health services. But if one person is saved by early detection, isn’t it worth it? After all, there are already too many individuals with undiagnosed and unaddressed chronic diseases – and we know the impact that is having on the fragile U.S. healthcare system. It’s akin to having a global influenza outbreak and suddenly everyone is wearing a mask or at the very least, washing their hands. While it might be overkill, improved awareness that motivates better hygiene is never a bad thing. If the deaths of two of America’s pop culture icons can help save lives by fostering that kind of awareness, then their lives and public suffering have not been in vain.

I apparently have survived the Toll House raw cookie dough contamination. Just last night I baked up a few dollops of deliciousness (you don’t actually think I bake from scratch, do you?) but must admit to breaking off a few bits of the raw dough when no one was looking. And I lived to tell about it the next day!  I don’t mean to make light of any food product recall, as so many folks have become sick or died in the past due to tainted food, but it does give me pause when I read about a recall. Specifically, I had just spent $2.99 on what I thought was a perfectly good package of cookie dough, well within its expiration date, and then suddenly the prospect of further decadent delight was dashed and the package was hovering over the trash can. It’s still in my fridge, awaiting its final judgment. So my question is, do you automatically pitch food that’s been involved in a recall or do you bravely consume it, taking your chances that your package escaped contamination? I’d be interested to know how infection preventionists feel about foodborne illness!