Klarinet Archive - Posting 000767.txt from 1997/02

From: "Diane Karius, Ph.D." <dikarius@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Bugs
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 1997 23:37:30 -0500

Although its possible that the strep. is living on the mouthpiece or
reeds (how old is his/her current reed?), streptococcus really
prefers living at a nice warm 98.6 F. (37 C) body temperature and
would have a fairly difficult time colonizing a clarinet that spends
most of its time at room temperature (most transmission is from
person to person with little or no time spent below body temperature).
To be absolutely sure, just soak the mouthpiece in basic detergent
and water - if they are really convinced that the clarinet is the
culprit, adding a few drops of bleach or some hydrogen peroxide
to the solution will kill any bug (even HIV - as you noted not a
likely resident).
As to why your student is really getting the infections -
the bug is being passed around at school, or (if relatively
little time is lapsing between infections) he/she has not really
beaten the strep, but is just beating it back enough to be free of
symptoms - could be either it is a strain that is resistant to the
antibiotics being tried or that they aren't finishing out the whole
dose of antibiotic - its fairly common in the US to stop taking the antibiotic
once the symptoms are gone but still have enough of the bug around to
come back and haunt you.

Diane R. Karius, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology
University of Health Sciences
2105 Independence Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64124
email: dikarius@-----.EDU