Woke with pink eye!!

[Inspired by Reggio]

The difference between bacteria and viral infections are usually easy to decipher. Green is bacterial and clear is viral. This goes for any mucous so you know when you really need a doctor.

Not picking a fight here but for some interesting reading try googling 'fact or myth green mucus equals bacterial infection' ... some articles coming out of the UK and other countries with more and more research over the past decade showing that the color of your mucus has nothing to do if it is bacteria or viral or a need for Dr visit. There is a real attempt to 'reeducate' the medical community to stop doling out antibiotics based on this because they are often not needed as the cold is 'viral' and creating that 'antibiotic resistant viruses' out there as a result and if they would just TEST sputum they would be able to know for sure if bacterial or viral.... the problem in CANADA is that with our FREE health care system they will not TEST people to determine one way or the other and just give the prescription to appease parents and big pharm.

This is an excerpt from one site on new research into colds and treatments

GREEN MUCUS ISN'T A SIGN OF BACTERIAL INFECTION

Contrary to popular belief, green mucus is not a sign of bacterial infection, but a sign the immune system is working properly.

As the body recruits more and more virus-fighting white blood cells to the nose, the colour of the mucus changes from clear to *yellow to green. This is because these cells carry green iron-containing enzymes. The greener the colour, the more robust the immune response.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...#ixzz1qPWTUDae

[Dreamalittledream]

Thanks everyone! I fired off a warning e-mail to parents yesterday and everyone came this morning. Of course, they are all elementary teachers and understand

[Momof4]

Reggio, not everything on the internet is correct and not all medical people agree on everything. I'm speaking from 37 years of experience as a Mom/Grandma/daycare provider and I worked 10 years at a medical lab, so had schooling for that of course. I stick by what I said, sorry. The green colour is because they are dead white blood cells and macrophages in the mucous that have been attacking the bacteria.

Trust me, the doctors in our city along swab 1000's of throats and noses and other places daily and send them to the lab for testing. I do agree with you that they dole out antibiotics when they should not and when the results come back to them as viral, not bacterial I bet they aren't calling their patients and telling them to stop taking the antibiotics because it might make them look like idiots.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Yup - gonna have to agree to disagree on the color of green snot = bacteria infection needing medical treatment

My understanding that white blood cells attack both viral viruses and bacteria ones in the body ... again not a Dr or trained in medical background .... just from stuff I have been told or read with relation to my own shitty health ... for example eating gluten causes an increased white blood cell count in a Celiac cause the body views it as virus and attacks it ... so if the reason for the 'mucus' to turn green is in relation to the 'white blood cells' being present than ANY of those conditions can result in a 'green mucus' discharge and skew the cause ... specially without any other symptoms ... if it is just a green mucus discharge without a fever, cough, chills and so forth it could just be 'allergies' at the route.

[Momof4]

Yes, we can agree to disagree because a viral infection causes a drop in white blood cells and therefore a drop in temperature. That's another indication of a bacterial infection, a high temperature, but a high temp can also occur with certain viruses, they are very tricky. That's why they have survived since the beginning of time.