Bacterium causes U.S. flu vaccine shortage.

2004 NOV 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The reddish bacterium to blame for this year's shortage of flu vaccine has a colorful history.

Until the 1960s, Serratia marcescens was considered harmless - so safe, in fact, that the military secretly dispersed it across U.S. cities in germ warfare studies. Today, Serratia is blamed for urinary tract infections, infected surgical wounds and pneumonia, usually spread among hospital patients.

The germ that tainted the flu vaccine at a British factory is a common contaminant in labs - and lots of other places. Serratia is found in people's intestines, and possibly growing as pinkish scum in the shower, too.

"Most of us carry it every day of our lives," said Martin Blaser, chairman of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. "A great paradox of life and health is we have all these bad organisms we carry around OK in our intestinal tracts, and if we move them over one inch to our bladder, for example, they make us sick."

Serratia thrives in damp places, from bathroom walls to improperly sanitized medical equipment. It is partial to bread and other starchy foods, ...