Toxic Shock

 

Trip 9: Perth to Brisbane to Gilgunia to Dubbo to Sydney to Perth

Purpose: Approvals Pathway and Reconnaissance Survey

Total Distance Travelled: 8,294 km

Distance Travelled Year to Date:  32,367 km

According to Lennox Archibald, MD, PhD, of the College of Medicine, University of Florida, bathrooms in restaurants, resorts, hospitals, and even libraries are crawling with bugs that can cause everything from diarrhoea to wound infections. He and his team did not have to look too far to recover samples loaded with staph, which can cause everything from boils to antibiotic-resistant infections, E. coli and even Enterococcus, which is a faecal bug that can cause urinary tract infections and wound infections. The worst part is that these nasties were all cultured from samples taken on supposedly clean dry surfaces. These were not surfaces that people had rubbed their ‘bits’ on. 

So what about the good old hot, wet and moldy communal shower? What secret treasures has that in store? US researchers have found that shower heads are “breeding grounds for bacteria which, the second the water is turned on, belch out all over the person that thinks they are actually getting clean. A common little beast is Mycobacterium avium, which can cause respiratory infections in people with a weak immune system or chronic respiratory disease. There are up to 28 other taxa crawling around in there waiting to be jet propelled into your life.

I have showered in some pretty spectacular places and by spectacular I don’t mean El Questro Stations spectacular. I mean cable ties and ‘Tek’ screws out in the breeze spectacular. I often share my bathroom experience with the local wildlife. 

 

But I think the most offensive thing I have ever encountered in an outback bathroom was that which I had to endure only just recently on a project in central NSW. The clash between the wall paint and the shower curtain was obscene. It was hard to take, so much so I could not hold the camera steady! The photo does not do it justice. I think the artist for the walls and roof was obviously a St Kilda supporter and I am sure that the shower curtain was a Ken Done special from his Little Mermaid era. It was very nouveau oceanica.

 

Other than that, no complaints. No diseases or infections. Just mental scarring that will take some time to fix.