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infections at the Pines 13-Nov-2008 At 10:31:01 PM prb

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Well, speaking as a microbiologist...

You're probably seeing a lot of infections because of the warmer weather and not a lot of washing so
you're more covered than usual with bugs such as staph, strep, coryneforms, yeasts, enteric bacilli,
etc. They're all waiting for a chance to get at your flesh and a wound gets them inoculated. I doubt if
the flies are playing a major role: the infections are probably due to each person's own flora and would
be mostly due to "golden" staph, very good at inducing pussy infections. I think nmonteith's idea of
endogenous infection would be a rare event - if you have significant number of bacteria in your
bloodstream (ie. septicaemia) you would be feeling very unwell in hospital, not out climbing. Have an
antiseptic ready, the little iodine (Betadine) tear-off sachets are great. Dob it on within a few minutes,
cover it with a bandaid or whatever and you should be fine.