A while back, I wrote about the loss of the Stardust Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
The oldest surviving casino on the Strip is no more. Good-bye, New Frontier. You can see the implosion here. But here is a promo for the resort, to remember another time, another place, and another era. I just hope they saved the sign, because it's a classic. It's no wonder we love downtown Vegas so much more than the Strip--they embrace the past, and restore the historic casinos, rather than just wiping them off the face of the earth.
On a different note, I also recently wrote about the "superbug" that the media is getting all panicky about (and sending the public into a panic while they're at it). I took a phone call at work yesterday that actually made me laugh out loud. The lab at one of our local hospitals called, and they said that one of the floors had called them because a doctor had gotten a report that one of his patients had MRSA, and he wanted them to find out if it was "the super MRSA, or the regular MRSA." Yes, I laughed, and the hospital lab person laughed, too. I told her to let them know that it's all the same, there's no difference, but if they have any questions, just give us a call. Sure enough, maybe five minutes later, the phone rang, and it was a nurse on the floor, wanting to know more about MRSA. She told me that the doctor told her to find out if it was "regular MRSA, or is it the the super MRSA, the one that's killing all these people." Oh, shame on you, whichever doctor you were, for not knowing more about it and buying into the media frenzy!
The nurse and I had a nice chat, and I explained that MRSA is MRSA--the only difference is that it used to be restricted to hospital and institutional settings, but now it has become prevalent in the community, and that's called Community-Acquired MRSA. I said that there was no difference in how they should handle their isolation procedures. She said that the family was worried, and wondering if they need to sterilize their home, etc. I said I didn't know what the current recommendations were, so for that, they'd need to contact the State Board of Health, or our County Health Department. She seemed to be happy to have the information, and I hope she contacted the CHD. We have no problem with taking phone calls like that at the lab--part of our job is to talk to people and educate them about some of this stuff--but I am just appalled that this doctor didn't know more about it! There are so many misconceptions--again, thank you, Media--that my advice would be to take the time to visit cdc.gov and find out more about it. You'll get much better information there than what you will get from the media or the newspaper.
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