Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

Tired of pesky mosquito, spider, or other insect bites getting you down? You could try using Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca alternifolia), an extract made from the leaves of an Australian tree. Tea Tree Oil has strong activity against Staphylococcus aureus including MRSA, and is a potent antimicrobial drug.

Please note that Tea Tree Oil “is toxic when swallowed. It has been reported to cause drowsiness, confusion, hallucinations, coma, unsteadiness, weakness, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach upset, blood cell abnormalities, and severe rashes. It should be kept away from pets and children.” If applied inside ears, it can cause hearing loss, or if applied in great concentration to the skin, and also be toxic.

You can buy it any local pharmacy over the counter or at grocery stores. Amazon also sells it: Tea Tree 100% Pure Therapeutic Grade Essential Oil – 30 ml.

I’ve been using it on a spider bite and a couple mosquito bites (hmm, bugs like to bite me… ) and it’s working well and helping them heal much more rapidly than usual. It has an interesting smell, but a thin application twice a day for a week seems to be working well.

Today Apple released a press release, a Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs informing the world that his weight loss is not a recurrence of his pancreatic cancer, and that he is able to continue carrying out his duties as Apple’s CEO while recovering from his “hormone imbalance:”

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

This comes in response to a post on Gizmodo, Steve Jobs’ Health Declining Rapidly, Reason for Macworld Cancellation, which alleges that “Steves health is rapidly declining. Apple is choosing to remove the hype factor strategically vs letting the hype destroy apple when the inevitable news comes later this spring.”

When this latest revelation is coupled with the previous delays we’ve seen in reporting Job’s health problems, the only thing we can expect is worse news. If you follow Apple and appreciate its products, do not be surprised if Steve Jobs resigns as CEO, or is replaced by the Apple board following a deterioration in his health, or death.

Update: It appears that the common thought that Jobs is sicker than Apple’s willing to admit was true. Apple just released a press release stating that Steve Jobs’ “health-related issues are more complex than [he] originally thought” and that he “decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.”

Please see Disclosure & Legal Notice for information about conflicts of interest and this post. Disclosure: Short Apple at time of publication.

What is a staph infection? What is MRSA? Staph, in layman’s terms, is shorthand for a kind of Gram-positive bacteria known as Staphylococcus (”bunch of grapes” in Greek). These bacteria are fairly limited in range–there are only 31 varieties in the genus, and most are harmless. One of the harmful, but most common, species is Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), which can infect open wounds, leading to toxic shock and death:

Did you know that 500,000 patients in American hospitals contract a staph infection every year? Or that staph infection is in the top four post-op complications?

By itself, a staph infection didn’t used to be serious. In 1943, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by watching it act against a staph colony in a petri dish. A few years later, by 1950 as much as 40% of hospital S. Aureus were resistant to penicillin. By 1960, 80% were. This is the precursor to the modern MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) problem.

MRSA is simply evolved S. Aureus. Over time, in hospital settings, this simple bacteria was exposed to all kinds of antibiotics. Over time, most of them died, but the survivors had a mutation that protected them, which they passed on to their children. Today (well, these numbers are from 2005) 31.8 out of every 100,000 Americans acquire an MRSA infection. This is 94,360 cases and 18,650 deaths nationwide a year, 150% as many deaths as caused by AIDS.

References: Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA