h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: MRSA - A2111798
Author: leo mckern [space for random exotic word juxtaposition generator] - U534308

I've quickly banged this out. If anyone knows the number of phage types of S.aureus more accurately please let me know

hi leo!

i've been through your article - nice one. just a few comments on the format and contents:

1. can you do guideml? (i noticed that you can code, but you need to change the page format to 'guideml' first, or else it'll come out looking like your personal page!) 'cos if you're handy with the tags, you should put those 'who','what' and 'hows' as subheaders. it'll be clearer that way. and maybe you could separate the paragraphs with the tag as well.

2. i think for the sake of following the linnaeus taxonomy, you should capitalise Staphylococcus, and italicise Staphylococcus aureus. and since the mrsa is in upper caps, you might want to change it to Methicillin/Multiply Resistant as well, for the sake of standardising things

3. you could place a link to the article on antibiotics resistance: A591374. it's a pretty comprehensive article, and one that i've referenced a great many times.

4. speaking of which, many people at hootoo don't have much microbiology background, so you might want to mention that methicillin, penicillin etc are all antibiotics before you go on to explain about beta-lactamase. (i know you mention antibiotics much later on, but you risk losing the audience early on in your article this way)

5. actually, our entire class tested positive for s. aureus! small wonder, since it's typical skin microflora. however, some of our staph *were* resistant to a couple of antibiotics...

6. re: people with little microbiology background - perhaps you could write a bit on why mrsa is of medical importance? it *is* an important source of nosocomial illness... the only other comparably nasty bug i can think of is pseudomonas aeruginosa (hmm, maybe someone should do an article about *that* as well...). of course, we're not trying to promote fear of hospitals, but i think it's a valid point nonetheless.

i'll go through it again later, and see if there's anything to add. good of you to tackle this!

cheers,
far.

having problems with the Guide ML - that's why my personal space is a cockup! any help would be appreciated
thanks for the feedback, hopefully it reads clearer now

any comments - I'm going to post on peer review tomorrow

Nope, can't find much wrong with that - shame, I was in the mood to be picky!

Are you going to put anything about the future for MRSA, maybe about the government plans for eradication?

Possibly a separate page seeing as it covers different aspects really. Very topical though. Knowing many of your views on the government, maybe this would be a good topic for discussion.

what are their plans - anything sensible? or the usual wishful thinking?

Nah, it's all of this Director of Infection Control malarky. Won't make the blindest bit of difference to incidence rates. Yet another useless idea that sounds great to the general public and the government look good in their eyes, but to people in the know, it's just waste of time.

Nah, it's all of this Director of Infection Control malarky. Won't make the blindest bit of difference to incidence rates. Yet another useless idea that sounds great to the general public and the government look good in their eyes, but to people in the know, it's just waste of time.

I'll add something about that

Cool

Yep, that sums it up. Good luck with the peer review

hi again,

good work with the guideml! i've gone through your coding... a few suggestions:

1. why don't you put the 'why' etc etc as subheaders? use the tags. they look a great deal grander than if you were to keep them as bold text.

2. you forgot to leave a space between your 'Multiply Resistant Staphylococcus aureus' and '(S. aureus)' ditto 'S.' and 'aureus'

3. re: MRSA is created by antibiotic usage - i think in many cases they're created by antibiotics abuse. hmm... you did mention this later on in the paragraph, but i think you should do away with this discrepancy. it really wouldn't do the public much good if they were to think that normal usage of antibiotics creates supermutants. (well, it does... eventually... but that's not the issue)

4. you might want to link to this article? A471575 (it's on bacteriophages, just in case the reader would like to know more about them)


anyway, good work!