Oh, it's only a flesh wound. Pass me that plastic bear, would you?

From NYU's internal medicine blog, Clinical Correlations, a scientific update on the powerful but previously poorly-described anti-bacterial powers of honey:

Every once in a while when reviewing articles to be included in this section, I find one that makes me smile. An article featured in this week’s Clinical Infectious Disease was titled “Medical-Grade Honey Kills Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria In Vitro and Eradicates Skin Colonization. The investigators studied Revamil, a medical-grade honey, to assess the in vitro bactericidal activity against S. aureus, S. Epidermidis, E. Faecium, E. coli, P. Aeruginosa, Enterobaceter cloacae and Klebsiella oxytoca in forearm colonization. After 2 days of application of honey, the extent of colonization was reduced 100-fold. Apparently, honey has other uses too and has been reported to successfully treat chronic wound infections that were unresponsive to antibiotics. Who would have thought? Perhaps this could have also made a ShortCuts section in the year 1776….

The article was published by a group of researchers in Amsterdam; somehow it makes perfect sense.