Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, Look, no one really wants to think about it, and yet you can't help but think about it when you smell or emit a particularly odiferous fart. Can that fart spread disease? We found two studies done
decades apart that come to two different conclusions. In August of ninety eight, an outbreak of infections of a particular strain of streptococcie occurred at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. The nine patients infected were housed in different wards with different problems, and they were visited by many medical staff during their stays, but seven of them shared an anesthesiologist.
The stuff took oral swabs of the anesthesiologists skin and throat, but they came back negative no trace of the streptococcie. Since this was the mid twentieth century when penicillin was handed out like candy, the anesthesiologist was given a short course of an hbiotic because why not. But a few months later, in November and December, another outbreak of the same strain of strep infected eight different patients the same
anesthesiologist attended five of these new cases. He still wasn't showing any symptoms, but this time the staff took an anal swab of the doctor and that turned up the exact strain of strip affecting these new patients. The doctor was given a full round of antibiotics and taken off duty for ten days. Afterwards, his cultures were clear of streptococci and there were no further wound infections related to
his patients. Researchers said at the time in the New England Journal of Medicine that while the quote anus to hand to patient route of transmission was a possibility, airborne transmission was more likely in this case. The authors of the paper concluded then that it was probably the doctor's farts infecting the patient's wounds, not him failing to wash
his hands properly. Fast forward to two thousand one, a woman called into doctor Carl carsel Nikki's radio show in Australia asking if she was contaminating the operating room when she quietly farted during procedures. Doctor Carl thought that was a fair question, so he enlisted a microbiologist friend, Luke Tenant, to help find out Tenant asked a colleague to fart into two petree dishes, one with his pants on and one with his pants down. Never forget, science is very elegant.
Tenant checked the dishes the next morning. The no pants dish had lumps of bacteria similar to those found on our skin and in our gut. The pants dish had no bacteria. Doctor Carl noted that the bacteria and the no pants dish wasn't harmful though, just the normal everyday microbes that live within and around us, and can even be helpful. They're part of the microbiome that helps us digest our food. Well, okay, but what about pink eye. You may have heard as a kid that you can
get pink eye if somebody farts on your pillow. First of all, if someone farts on your pillow, they are not your friend and you shouldn't let them anywhere near your pillows. Second, though, the myth just isn't true. It's called passing gas. Because it's gas, any bacteria in the fart would die pretty quickly outside the body. You can, however, get pink eye from actual poop. If you touch poop and then touch your eye, you can get pink eye.
As with a bacterial infection, any viruses that might be present in your intestines aren't likely to spread through farts. This is even true of coronaviruses like the one that leads to COVID nineteen. Viruses fall out of the air pretty quickly, meaning these surfaces they land on are more contagious than any smell wafting past your unfortunate nose, more than anything to do with farts. Good hand washing techniques will make the most difference for keeping bacteria and viruses
outside your body. Washing your hands for twenty seconds each time you use the bathroom or touch shared surfaces like the handle of the office refrigerator, for instance, vastly reduces the likelihood that you'll contract any illnesses or infections. So what have we learned here today? Wear pants and wash your hands words to live by. Today's episode was written by Kristen hall Geisler and produced by Tyler Clang. From more on this lots of other curious topics, visit how
stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,