Dear Julie, Thank you for atttending my talk. I am delighted that you and your son want to try a science fair on this topic but he might not be happy when he sweeps the field and has to go to the nationals. It gets very time-consuming especially if he gets recruited to college and then medical school and you never see him again. My son won his school fair by electrocuting narcissus bulbs with toy DC transformers of different voltages. Everything grew progressively in miniature the more voltage we applied to the center of the bulbs. He was annoyed at all the weekends he had to spend indoors talking to “nerdy people.”

Here is what i would do. First review the topic in the Americal Bee Journal: Rankin, R S and Rankin, H, Regional honey and CA-MRSA (community- acquired methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) American Bee Journal 2012: April 293-4. This work was done near you in San Juan County, NM. You would best contact the Rankins for help on method. You need a source of MRSA, You need the culture plates, some bactoban, and standard antibiotic discs for vancomycin and bactitracin and of course some local honey as well as manuka honey. And you need an incubator and the ability, reproduceably, to make thin films of hospital and community MRSA. A local hospital or college lab may be willing to help you get up to speed and to host you. Growing Community and/ or Hospital MRSA which is are resistant superbugs can be hazardous and could get your and your family into a carrier state or actual infections like boils. That is why getting a qualified microbiologist to mentor your son is advisable. A succesful project will be a feather in the cap of any local hospital both practice changing as well as public relations for their websites- doing mini research with teenagers. You could get some cooperation, I am sure. If you cannot grow consistent cultures, reading zones of inhibition around spots of local and manuka honeys will be frustratiing and of course you have to get the results in time for the fair. Naturally, I will post the results here if you send them. Keep in touch and I will answer if I can. I mentored Alyssa Fine on her competitive essay on honey in wounds and she was selected as National Honey Queen, by the National Honey Board and is touring the country at county fairs as we speak.

Thank you Raymond for sharing your experience. It seems a paradox that a concentrated sugar gel would be safe and effective for diabetic patients’ wounds. The sugars are not absorbed, however, and the mixture prevents infection, a particular hazard in the patient with diabetes, especially in the leg and foot. Honey reduces pain, odor and scabbing with related scarring. With a high quality dressing–I prefer the Nexcare (3M) brand series– you can change the dressing 2 X/ week which saves discomfort and aggravation and expense. You can purchase these dressings in sizes suitable for many wounds. Larger wounds can be handled with non stick, Telfa ™ gauze, covered with Tegaderm (3M) film. Expensive dressings are worthwhile because they do last longer, stick better but come off without damaging the surrounding skin. Change more often if there is soiling, leakage, pain, redness or loosening of the dressing. More and more visiting nurse services nationally are coming on board with honey dressings. Your family doctor can order them in for deeper or more complex dressings.