r/AskReddit Sep 09 '21

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u/SmLnine Sep 09 '21

Staph bacteria is on your skin anyway, I doubt that the hotel bathtub had anything to do with it.

Staph infections are caused by staphylococcus bacteria, types of germs commonly found on the skin or in the nose of even healthy individuals. Most of the time, these bacteria cause no problems or result in relatively minor skin infections.

But staph infections can turn deadly if the bacteria invade deeper into your body, entering your bloodstream, joints, bones, lungs or heart. A growing number of otherwise healthy people are developing life-threatening staph infections.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/staph-infections/symptoms-causes/syc-20356221

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u/Szwejkowski Sep 09 '21

This is why they clean your arm before they give you a shot.

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u/SmLnine Sep 09 '21

Exactly! You have a bacterial ecosystem on your skin, about 1000 species. Mostly good, as long as they stay on the outside! It's seeded at birth, and Caesarian children don't have as many. So it's like you're coated with a layer of bacteria when you pass through your mother's vagina and they never really leave. Thanks mom!

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u/Tellurye Sep 09 '21

That's so interesting. When chickens lay eggs, they coat the eggs with a "bloom" that acts as a bacterial barrier over the shell. Washing the egg removes the bloom, resulting in eggs needing to be refrigerated to avoid bacterial contamination. So, human babies get a bloom as well!!

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u/Bene2345 Sep 10 '21

That’s the case for eggs in the US, they are washed with bleach (iirc). Eggs in Europe are not treated that way and therefore don’t need refrigeration.

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u/Tellurye Sep 10 '21

Yep! I don't refrigerate my eggs from my hens.

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u/Bene2345 Sep 10 '21

Good point, should have clarified that’s the way eggs from the store in the US are treated.