Contamination by respiratory viruses on outer surface of medical masks used by hospital healthcare workers

Medical masks are commonly used in health care settings to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from respiratory and other infections. Airborne respiratory pathogens may settle on the surface of used masks layers, resulting in contamination. The main aim of this study was to study the presence of viruses on the surface of medical masks.

…Respiratory pathogens on the outer surface of the used medical masks may result in self-contamination. The risk is higher with longer duration of mask use (> 6 h) and with higher rates of clinical contact. Protocols on duration of mask use should specify a maximum time of continuous use, and should consider guidance in high contact settings. Viruses were isolated from the upper sections of around 10% samples, but other sections of masks may also be contaminated. HCWs should be aware of these risks in order to protect themselves and people around them.

healthcare workers routinely contaminated with respiratory viruses

Researchers tested the skin, clothing and personal protective equipment, or PPE, of health care workers after caring for patients and found they are routinely contaminated with respiratory viruses, demonstrating the importance of complete hand hygiene and appropriate PPE use and doffing practices to prevent transmission of pathogens, they said.

Writing in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the researchers noted that such contamination can contribute to the spread of pathogens transmitted via contact, increasing the risk for infection in health care workers (HCWs) and the risk for spread to the health care environment. They noted that PPE doffing and donning is one way pathogens may be “transferred to the clothing and skin of HCWs.”

mask pathogens

…A parent who participated in the study, Ms. Amanda Donoho, commented that this small sample points to a need for more research: “We need to know what we are putting on the faces of our children each day. Masks provide a warm, moist environment for bacteria to grow.”

The parents contracted with the lab because they were concerned about the potential of contaminants on masks that their children were forced to wear all day at school, taking them on and off, setting them on various surfaces, wearing them in the bathroom, etc. This prompted them to send the masks to the University of Florida’s Mass Spectrometry Research and Education Center for analysis.

Black Widow Spider Bite

Young people, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems are more susceptible to serious complications and death from a black widow spider bite. Regardless, anyone who has been bitten, or who suspects they've been bitten by a black widow spider, should seek medical treatment immediately.

The black widow is a medium-sized spider -- about a half-inch long. Two species are common to the United States:

• The southern black widow. This spider has a shiny, black, globe-shaped abdomen. You’ll know it by the red hourglass mark on the underside.

• The northern black widow. You’ll notice a row of red spots down the middle of the upper surface of its abdomen. It also has two crosswise bars on the underside. Just to make things interesting, the markings can also be yellow or white. The spider may be brown or have red legs.

These spiders are active at night. They prefer dark corners or crevices, like garages. They only bite when disturbed.

Symptoms

The black widow spider makes a venom that affects your nervous system. Some people are slightly affected by it, but others may have a severe response. Right away, you may feel severe pain, burning, swelling, and redness at the site. You may even see two fang marks.

Other symptoms include:

• Muscles that begin to hurt and become stiff, usually within 8 hours

• Nausea or vomiting

• Difficulty breathing

• Severe abdominal pain or cramping

• Excessive sweating

• Rash and itching

• Swollen eyelids

• Weakness or tremors. You may not be able to move your legs.

Many of the symptoms of a black widow bite can look like those of other conditions. But if you think you’ve been bitten by this spider, make an appointment to see your doctor.

IMPORTANT: If you suspect your child was bitten by a black widow, get to the emergency room right away. These bites can be fatal in young children.

In the meantime, try these tips to ease your symptoms and prevent further infection:

• Wash the area with soap and water.

• Apply a cold washcloth or ice pack wrapped in cloth to the area.

• Take an over-the-counter pain reliever, like Tylenol.

• If the bite is on your arm or leg, elevate it to prevent swelling.

• Apply an antibiotic cream or lotion to the bite.

If possible, kill and capture the spider (place it in a plastic bag or jar) and take it to your doctor appointment. This way, they’ll know for sure that it was a black widow that bit you.

Your doctor will review your symptoms and decide what more treatment, if any, is needed. If they’re severe, you may need muscle relaxants or stronger pain medicine. You may have to stay in the hospital, though that’s rarely the case.

In the most severe cases, your doctor may inject you with antivenin. It’s a drug made from substances in the blood of horses. Antivenin neutralizes the black widow’s venom. That means it prevents it from causing you harm.

Your doctor will only use this treatment after they've spoken with another doctor who has experience in treating these bites. Antivenin can cause a number of side effects, so if your doctor gives it to you, they’ll have to monitor you for about 8 to 12 days afterward.

Study finds... Mild COVID-19 cases can lead to antibody protection for life

…“Last fall, there were reports that antibodies wane quickly after infection with the virus that causes COVID-19, and mainstream media interpreted that to mean that immunity was not long-lived,” says senior author Ali Ellebedy, PhD, an associate professor of pathology and immunology, medicine, and molecular microbiology, in a university release.

“But that’s a misinterpretation of the data. It’s normal for antibody levels to go down after acute infection, but they don’t go down to zero; they plateau. Here, we found antibody-producing cells in people 11 months after first symptoms. These cells will live and produce antibodies for the rest of people’s lives. That’s strong evidence for long-lasting immunity.”

…The results reveal COVID antibodies in the blood dropped off quickly within a few months of clearing the virus. However, these antibodies did not disappear entirely, they leveled off and scientists still detected them in patients 11 months later.

Moreover, 15 of the bone marrow samples from coronavirus patients contained antibody-producing cells which target COVID-19. The bone marrow from the five patients who came back to give a second sample still had these cells present four months later. On the other hand, all 11 people who did not get COVID-19 did not have any of these antibody-producing cells in their bone marrow.

For COVID patients, researchers say there’s no reason to think these cells will ever leave the human body.

“People with mild cases of COVID-19 clear the virus from their bodies two to three weeks after infection, so there would be no virus driving an active immune response seven or 11 months after infection,” Ellebedy explains. “These cells are not dividing. They are quiescent, just sitting in the bone marrow and secreting antibodies. They have been doing that ever since the infection resolved, and they will continue doing that indefinitely.”

the objective collapse

binary
A binary code represents text, computer processor instructions, or any other data using a two-symbol system. The two-symbol system used is often "0" and "1" from the binary number system. The binary code assigns a pattern of binary digits, also known as bits, to each character, instruction, etc. For example, a binary string of eight bits can represent any of 256 possible values and can, therefore, represent a wide variety of different items.

non-binary
A ternary computer (also called trinary computer) is a computer that uses ternary logic (three possible values) instead of the more popular binary system ("Base 2") in its calculations.
Ternary computing deals with three discrete states, but the ternary digits themselves can be defined in different ways:

quantum
Quantum computing is the exploitation of collective properties of quantum states, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform computation. The devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. They are believed to be able to solve certain computational problems, such as integer factorization (which underlies RSA encryption), substantially faster than classical computers. The study of quantum computing is a subfield of quantum information science. It is likely to expand in the next few years as the field shifts toward real-world use in pharmaceutical, data security and other applications

Objective-collapse theories, also known as models of spontaneous wave function collapse or dynamical reduction models,  were formulated as a response to the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, to explain why and how quantum measurements always give definite outcomes, not a superposition of them as predicted by the Schrödinger equation, and more generally how the classical world emerges from quantum theory. The fundamental idea is that the unitary evolution of the wave function describing the state of a quantum system is approximate. It works well for microscopic systems, but progressively loses its validity when the mass / complexity of the system increases.

In collapse theories, the Schrödinger equation is supplemented with additional nonlinear and stochastic terms (spontaneous collapses) which localize the wave function in space. The resulting dynamics is such that for microscopic isolated systems the new terms have a negligible effect; therefore, the usual quantum properties are recovered, apart from very tiny deviations. Such deviations can potentially be detected in dedicated experiments, and efforts are increasing worldwide towards testing them.