Health & Wellness

US researchers say that shower heads can be particular “breeding grounds for bacteria and when water is passed through them, they blast out the bugs”. This can in some cases lead on to severe respiratory infections particularly to susceptible persons, who may have compromised immune systems or may be suffering from chronic respiratory conditions.

Research was carried out by Dr Leah M Feazel and a team from the University of Colorado, led by Professor Norman Pace. It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US and was peer-reviewed. Funding for the research was provided by the “National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health” & the “Alfred P Sloan Foundation”.

A particular culprit was identified as Mycobacterium avium which is commonly found in the environment. The small scale study which examined “microbial composition of biofilms inside showerheads” in samples from 45 shower heads from nine cities in the US, basically verified the presence of the potentially infection causing bacteria.

The microbes reproduce rapidly in the dank, dark, environments found in the recesses of shower heads’. They clump together in “biofilms” which are slime like residues. Levels of bacteria in samples, were more than 100 times higher than in ordinary tapwater.

This gives particular concern because water from the shower is “aerosolised” – vaporised into tiny drops. There is thus a potential to inhale a “a faceful of aerosolised bacteria” from the shower-head, especially at initial start-up when any microbial residue is forced out. Therefore microbes can be inhaled deep into the respiratory tract and lungs.

Exposure to these pathogen can potentially lead to fairly low-level infections which can persist in healthy people. They can also lead to more severe conditions with symptoms similar to tuberculosis, in the aged and those with impaired immunity.

The leader of the research study, Prof. Norman Pace, who is a molecular biologist at the university, is quoted as saying: “How many people do you know with a shallow cough? Probably a lot. I would bet that in a lot of cases Mycobacterium avium is responsible. I think it’s a serious public health concern.”

In the cases of those at “greatest risk” such as HIV victims, those on steroidal medication, cystic fibrosis sufferers and those with chronic pulmonary/repiratory conditions, he continued: “For these people I think there’s a serious risk and I would recommend avoiding showers,”

It must be emphasised however, that the study did not directly examine the increase in risk of getting infected, by having a shower. This may well be grounds for further research in the future. Therefore ordinarily healthy people, with effective immune systems, should not have undue concerns about having showers – at least for now, until there is more concrete evidence of a causal relationship. It is in the interim, strongly advisable to flush out the shower-head before subsequent showering, to ameliorate this risk.

Professor Pace also suggests that plastic shower heads seem to “load up” with higher levels of microbe-laden biofilms. It may therefore be advisable to replace these by metal shower heads where possible.

Showers have also been implicated as a transmission medium for some other infectious diseases, including Legionnaires’ disease – a type of pneumonia, and chest infections by the “Pseudomonas aeruginosa” bacterium.

For more details please also visit the following links:

NHS.uk Article

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BBC News

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Times OnLine

or

CNN Article

A new combo vaccine slashes the odds of becoming infected with HIV by over 31%, according to results from the largest Aids trial performed on a cohort of more than 16,000 Thai volunteers. This hybrid vaccine comprised two separate types of “failed” vaccine, which adminstered individually did not produce any significant benefits.

The somewhat controversial study, funded by US taxpayers and costing $105 million, was conducted by US military and Thai Government personnel. Persons in the cohort who were innoculated with the hybrid vaccine were shown to be 31.2 per cent less likely to be infected by HIV over a three year period, after the doses were adminstered, than the others in the sample who only got the placebo.

The UN agency UNAids and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the findings “instilled new hope” in the area of HIV immunisation research.

British scientific experts today commended the scientists who made this giant leap in the quest for an effective Aids vaccine.
One said, that this news is a “real boost” to researchers, especially at a time when some were enquiring whether such a vaccine against the dangerous virus would ever be feasible.

The hybrid vaccine appeared to be effective against Thai HIV strains but there are some questions about efficacy against other globally existing strains. Daily, globally, about 7,500 persons get infected with HIV. Statistics show that in 2007 about two million people succumbed to Aids.
The “new” vaccine is hopefully an initial indicator that in the future a fully effective and safe vaccine could be developed.

Professor Robin Shattock, who hold the chair of Cellular and Molecular Infection at St George’s, University of London, is cited as saying:

“This trial is very promising as it is the first to show a positive effect. It is early days and we need to see if the results are statistically significant. But it does gives researchers a real boost at a time when some were questioning whether a vaccine would ever be possible.”

He continued: “Although it is very early to say exactly what this means for the future, it does offer hope. Now we need to understand how some of the participants in this trial were in some way protected.
It is essential to discover how this experimental vaccine affected the immune response of the participants. Once we understand what worked we can build on that to develop more effective vaccines.”

Another viewpoint put across by Elizabeth Pisani who is an epidemiologist specialising in HIV prevention and the author of “The Wisdom of Whores” has written the following in an article on the subject in a
Times OnLine article:

“With most infectious diseases, reducing everyone’s risk by a third would make quite a difference across a whole population.
But the problem with HIV is that it is both an infectious disease and a behavioural one. I can get it by sharing needles with other drug injectors, I can avoid it by using condoms every time I have sex. If I know I have been vaccinated, will that make me more likely to share needles, or less likely to use condoms? And if it does, will that change outweigh the 30 per cent reduction in risk that comes with the vaccine?”

Certainly some food for thought!

Reuters: Q & A Why the Vaccine Works
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BBC.co.uk: Thailand’s Battle With HIV
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Times ONLine: The Worst Kind of Good News