Monday, February 23, 2004

England cozzies up to maggots!
Hopefully you haven't just finished a meal. Doctors in England have completed a study that makes them very hopeful about maggot therapy. No, it's not putting a bunch of little squirmy whites on a couch. As we have all been told, antibiotics are becoming less effective as we take more of them. The solution? If you get a cut, clamp on a few maggots and they eat the dead skin and bacteria in the wound. I'm starting to hurl just writing this.

"It's got global appeal. It's ludicrously cost-effective and low-tech," says Dr. John Church, an orthopedic surgeon. He, along with Dr. Rogers and fellow entomologist Dr. Paul Embden, aim to launch magot therapy in Oxford. It is already up and running in one U.S. hospital. "We just have to get past what I call the Yuck Factor," says Dr. Church. "It's this immediate reaction of disgust."

And you thought they were only good for catching carp....
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