What is called Eisenbergiella tayi, an anaerobic bacterial strain, was actually discovered by an employee who has been a staff member at Bnei Brak’s Mayanei HaYeshua Hospital.

PhD student Itay Amir, 34, who is employed in the hospital’s microbiological lab, discovered the bacterial strain in the digestive tracts of two patients. The first was found about a year ago when she received a culture for analysis from an 84-year-old male.

Dr. Amir makes no effort to hide his joy, explaining “it was the first time that a new strain of bacteria was discovered in Mayanei HaYeshua and it is not every day that such a discovery is made in a clinical lab”. He explained the medical staff was astounded when he spoke with the experts, explaining they discovered a new strain, here in Israel from a local patient.

The strain is named after Dr. Phillip Eisenberg HY”D, a Jewish microbiologist who perished in the Holocaust and Dr. Warren Tay, the British ophthalmologist for whom Tay Sachs disease is named.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)