Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs

by Mark Olshaker

Ironically, shortly after the CDC announcement on September 19, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists speculated publicly that it was a personal hygiene issue and recommended that menstruating women change tampons more frequently. This turned out to be exactly the wrong advice. By telling them to change their high-absorbency tampons more frequently, the college was putting women at higher, rather than lower, risk. The more frequently a woman changed her high-absorbency tampon, the more oxygen she introduced into her vagina. Another lesson I learned from my experience investigating TSS is that if you don’t know what you’re talking about, then don’t talk, or at least say you don’t know.