【推荐1】A Wisconsin man made international headlines this week after a dog lick led to a rare infection resulting in the loss of part of his legs and arms. Greg Manteufel, 48, was diagnosed with a blood infection from capnocytophaga canimorsus, a bacterium found in dog and cat mouths. Doctors believe Manteufel became infected after his body was touched by a dog’s tongue. Manteufel’s case was serious.

Capnocytophaga is a bacterium found in the mouths of dogs, cats and even humans, and is considered normal, according to the CDC. Up to 74 percent of dogs and 57 percent of cats have some form of capnocytophaga in their mouths. There are many species of capnocytophaga. One of those species—capnocytophaga canimorsus, commonly found in dog and cat mouths—can potentially cause serious infection when passed on to humans.

It’s possible to test pets for the presence of the bacteria, but an animal might have the bacteria one day but not have it the next, according to the CDC. And it’s not practical to treat animals with medicine to get rid of the bacteria because it’s a normal part of their biology.

People are typically infected with capnocytophaga canimorsus from an animal bite, usually a dog bite. Some people, like Manteufel, become infected without a bite, if an animal carrying the bacteria licks them and the saliva touches an open area on the skin, like a cut.

The bacterium is common, but becoming seriously ill from an infection is not. “It’s just really, really, really rare,” said Scott Weese, a professor at Ontario Veterinary College’s Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses. “The risk caused by a dog is really low. Most dogs are carrying this bacterium in their mouth, but few people get sick.” Experts don’t know exactly how many people get infected with capnocytophaga annually because there’s no centralized record of cases. But all agree that serious infections happen once in a blue moon.

【推荐3】Dr. Sara McLin thought she made the right choice by going to an in-network emergency room near her Florida home after her 4-year-old burned his hand on a stove last Memorial Day weekend.

Her family is insured through her husband’s employer, HCA Healthcare, a Nashville-based health system that operates more hospitals than any other system in the nation. So McLin knew that a nearby stand-alone emergency room, HCA Florida Lutz Emergency, would be in their plan’s provider network.

But McLin said a doctor there told her she couldn’t treat her son, Keeling, because he had second- and third-degree burns that needed a higher level of care. The doctor referred them to the burn center at HCA Florida Blake Hospital, about a 90-minute drive away.

McLin, who is a dentist, said the doctor told her the stand-alone ER would not charge for the visit because they did not provide treatment.

“I don’t remember exactly how she phrased it, but something along the lines of--we won’t even call this a visit, because we can’t do anything. ” McLin said.

At Blake Hospital, a doctor diagnosed Keeling with a second-degree burn, bandaged his hand, and sent them home with instructions on how to care for the wound.

“I didn’t think anything more of it. ” McLin said.

Then the bills came.

Total Bill: For the emergency room visit, Envision Physician Services billed $829 to insurance and about $72 to the family. HCA Florida Trinity Hospital billed Keeling about $129, noting it had applied an “uninsured discount”. A list showed the original charge had been nearly $1, 509 before adjustments and discounts.

She said she called her insurer, United Healthcare, and a representative told her not to pay the bill.

After being contacted by KHN, Aliese Polk, an Envision spokesperson, said in an email that Envision would give up the debt, apologizing to Keeling’s family “for the misunderstanding. ”

【推荐3】 We know that every person has its own words or expressions to express his ideas and feelings. Some of these words and expressions are commonly used for many years. Others are popular for just a short time. One such American expression is “Where’s the beef ?” It is used when something is not as good as it is said to be. In the early 1980’ s “Where’s the beef ?” was one of the most popular expressions in the United States. It seemed as if everyone using it at the time.

Beef, of course, is the meat from a cow, and probably no food is more popular in America than a hamburger made from beef. In the 1960s a businessman named Ray Kroc began building small restaurants that sold hamburgers at a low price. Kroc called his restaurant “McDonald's”. Kroc cooked hamburgers quickly so people in a hurry could buy and eat them without waiting. By the end of the 1960s the McDonald's Company had been selling hamburgers in hundreds of restaurants from California to Maine. Not surprisingly, Ray Kroc became one of the richest businessmen in America.

Other business people watched his success. Some of them opened their own hamburgers restaurants. One company, called “Wendy's”, began to compete with McDonald's. Wendy' s said its hamburgers were bigger than those sold by McDonald's or anyone else. The Wendy's hamburgers were the biggest. It produced a television advertisement to sell this idea. The Wendy's television advertisement showed three old women eating hamburgers. The bread that covered the meat was very big, but inside there was only a tiny bit of meat. One of the women said she would not eat a hamburger with such a little piece of beef. “Where's the beef?” She shouted in a funny voice. These advertisements for Wendy's hamburger restaurants were a success from the first day they appeared on television. As we said, it seemed that everyone began using the expression “Where's the beef?”

It was one of the most popular expressions in the United States.