Page 28 - AT

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 8 october 2018

This March 2017 photo provided by Johns Hopkins University shows therapy dog Winnie at the
university’s hospital in Baltimore, Md.
Associated Press
Therapy dogs can spread

This illustration provided by NASA shows the New superbugs to kids, hospital finds
Horizons spacecraft.
Associated Press
By MIKE STOBBE have the potential to carry ing or playing with them
AP Medical Writer germs that make people — over 13 visits in 2016 and
NASA’s Pluto explorer NEW YORK (AP) — Therapy sick,” said Casey Barton 2017. the researchers
dogs can bring more than Behravesh of the Centers Among kids who had no
joy and comfort to hospi-
for Disease Control and MRSA,
adjusts course as next talized kids. They can also Prevention. found the superbug on
Pet therapy can help peo-
about 10 percent of the
bring stubborn germs.
icy world looms Doctors at Johns Hopkins ple recover from a range samples taken from those
Hospital in Baltimore were of health problems. Past kids after the dog visits.
suspicious that the dogs studies have shown dogs They also found MRSA on
might pose an infection or other animals can ease nearly 40 percent of the
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer risk to patients with weak- anxiety and sadness, lower samples from the dogs.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The NASA spacecraft ened immune systems. So blood pressure and even The researchers also deter-
that explored Pluto has adjusted course as its next tar- they conducted some tests reduce the amount of mined that the more time
get looms. when Pippi, Poppy, Badger medications some patients someone spent with the
New Horizons fired its thrusters late Wednesday way and Winnie visited 45 chil- need. animals, the greater the
out in our solar system’s so-called Kuiper (KIE-per) Belt, dren getting cancer treat- But there have been epi- chance of ending up with
or Twilight Zone. ment. sodes of the superbug the bacteria.
That puts the spacecraft on track for a New Year’s They discovered that kids MRSA riding around on The researchers think the
Day flyby of a teeny, frigid world dubbed Ultima Thule who spent more time with healthy-looking therapy dogs were generally clean
(THOO-lee). the dogs had a 6 times dogs. of MRSA when they first
The name comes from medieval maps and literature. greater chance of coming MRSA, or methicillin-resis- came to the hospital, but
Lead scientist Alan Stern is tweeting, “YEAH! Go Baby away with superbug bac- tant Staphylococcus au- picked it up from patients
Go!” teria than kids who spent reus bacteria, often live on or others while they were
New Horizons became the first spacecraft to visit Pluto less time with the animals. the skin without causing there, said one of the au-
in 2015. But the study also found symptoms. But they can thors, Meghan Davis.
Its next target is 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) that washing the dogs be- become more dangerous “Our hypothesis is it’s re-
beyond Pluto and a whopping 4 billion miles (6.4 bil- fore visits and using special if they enter the blood- ally person-to-person trans-
lion kilometers) from us. wipes while they’re in the stream, destroying heart mission, but it happened
So 13 years after rocketing from Florida, New Horizons hospital took away the risk valves or causing other through contact with the
will break its own record for humanity’s most distant of spreading that bacteria. damage. Health officials fur,” said Davis, a Johns
tour of a cosmic object.q The results of the unpub- have tied MRSA to as many Hopkins public health re-
lished study were released as 11,000 U.S. deaths a searcher and veterinarian.
Friday at a scientific meet- year. Under hospital protocols,
ing in San Francisco. The bacteria can spread therapy dogs must be
One U.S. health official in daycares, locker rooms bathed within a day of a
said the findings add to and military barracks, but visit and are checked for
the growing understanding public health efforts have wounds or other health
that while interactions with focused on hospitals and problems. Children who
pets and therapy animals nursing homes. see them are supposed to
can be beneficial, they The Baltimore study looked use hand sanitizer “but that
can also carry risk. at 45 children who inter- wasn’t strictly enforced,”
“Whether covered in fur, acted with the four dogs said Kathryn Dalton, anoth-
feathers or scales, animals — petting, hugging, feed- er one of the researchers.q