Various parasites
tsmith | October 31, 2013Warning: here be spoilers
In many latter-day zombie movies, books, and TV shows, zombie-ism has a biological cause. In 28 Days Later, the infection is caused by the "Rage" virus, which escaped from a lab when animal rights activists break in and release a group of infected chimpanzees. Of course, one of the animals promptly bites one of its "liberators," and the infection spreads rapidly throughout Great Britain. In Zombieland, it's a mutated form of "mad cow" disease. The Crazies, it's the Trixie virus; World War Z, the Solanum virus; Resident Evil, the T virus. I could go on and on. Zombie…
tsmith | June 18, 2013Student guest post by Carrie Ellsworth
During the summer of 2010 I spent two months in Ghana studying a parasite called schistosomiasis. We worked in a small town called Adasawase to determine prevalence and treat the schoolchildren who were infected. We were told that schistosomiasis was not a major health concern for the people in the town because they were often faced with other diseases that had more immediate and severe health consequences than a parasitic infection. It became apparent that if we wanted the people of this small town to take this health threat seriously, we needed to…
tsmith | June 17, 2013Student guest post by Naomi Kirschenbaum
Although we can never know, there are estimates in the range of 15,000 displaced pets in the wake of 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Many of the dogs found their way to shelters and homes in our community around the Monterey Bay in California. As a local veterinarian the most notable observation I saw was how it “seemed” that so many were heartworm positive. Six years later we have a published study finding a 48.8% prevalence of heartworm in these dogs.
This story is an example of a few important lessons. First, how things seemed to me, in my clinical…
tsmith | August 22, 2012Regular readers don't need to be told that I'm a bit obsessed with zoonotic disease. It's what I study, and it's a big part of what I teach. I run a Center devoted to the investigation of emerging diseases, and the vast majority of all emerging diseases are zoonotic. I have an ongoing series of posts collecting my writings on emerging diseases, and far too many papers in electronic or paper format in my office to count. Why the fascination? Zoonotic diseases have been responsible for many of mankind's great plagues--the Black Death, the 1918 "Spanish" flu pandemic, or more recently, HIV/AIDS…
tsmith | June 22, 2012This is the fourteenth of 16 student posts, guest-authored by Caroline Rauschendorfer.
Cryptosporidiosis, known more commonly as crypto, is a gastrointestinal (GI) disease caused by parasites of the Cryptosporidium genus. If infected with crypto you may experience diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal cramps that can last up to two weeks. Definitely something you want to avoid, if possible, but at least it usually resolves on its own without medical intervention and is rarely fatal in otherwise healthy individuals. [3]
The most common disease causing organisms for crypto are C.…
tsmith | June 21, 2012This is the twelfth of 16 student posts, guest-authored by Stanley Corbin.
Disease in wildlife is an important concern to the health and safety of humans and domestic animals. The expanding growth of our nation and resultant land use changes with urbanization has resulted in a shrinking habitat and fragmentation for all animals, including humans. The effects of ecological disruption are universally recognized and adversely effects wildlife through multiple mechanisms.
Hand it to the coyote (Canis latrans) for its ability to exist with humans. The resilience of this animal can be attributed to…
tsmith | June 18, 2012This is the seventh of 16 student posts, guest-authored by Joshua Pikora.
Recently an article published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases titled Chagas Disease: “The New HIV/AIDS of the Americas” caused a stir in the media receiving coverage through Fox News and The New York Times among others. This article, as the title indicates, claims that Chagas disease is the new AIDS of the Americas and likens the current situation of Chagas disease to that of the first two decades of the AIDS epidemic, but is that truly the case1? The argument that I gained from the article is that the early…
tsmith | June 16, 2012This is the fifth of 16 student posts, guest-authored by E. Jane Kelley.
Did you know that some dogs might have a tapeworm in their small intestine that can cause the development of large cysts in people’s livers, lungs, and brains? This is not very common in the United States currently, though there are cases reported periodically (2), but in some areas of the world it is a huge problem. An infection that can spread from animals to humans or vice-versa is called a zoonotic infection.
The tapeworm is called Echinococcus granulosus and the cystic disease it causes is called hydatid disease (…
tsmith | June 15, 2012This is the fourth of 16 student posts, guest-authored by Eric Wika.
Let's face it, it's a dangerous world to be a brain. The brain is so soft and squishy it cannot even support its own weight. That's right, even gravity itself is enough to take out an unprotected brain. Besides these passive threats, there are several factions out there that active try to damage your brain! Zombies are an ever present menace which wish to eat our brains. TV will rot our brains, drugs will fry our brains and bullies will offer to “beat your brains in”. It's no wonder mother nature had to come up with the…
tsmith | June 14, 2012This is the second of 16 student posts, guest-authored by Eileen Ball.
The beauty of dogs and cats as companions is that we don’t have to raise them to go out into the world and be successful. As pet parents we can set the household “rules” according to what works for us and get on with enjoying our pets; hopefully for many years. According 2011-2012 APPA National Pet Owners Survey cats have now surpassed dogs as the most common household pets in the United States. Despite this fact the same survey reports that in 2010 only 30% of US veterinary patients were cats. As a companion animal…
tsmith | June 14, 2012This is the first of 16 student posts, guest-authored by Riva Ben-Ezra.
Acai fruit comes from the Brazilian Amazon forests and is one of the main dietary staples of the native population. It has been touted as having potent antioxidant properties 1,2 as well as being a stimulant for weight loss3, a cancer cure and an anti-aging miracle drug. Whether these claims are true or not remains to be seen4,5; however the FDA has clamped down on Acai products claiming to perform health benefits without classifying themselves as drugs (see here, here and here).
Something that the FDA has not taken…
tsmith | March 27, 2006Part One: Introduction to Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses
Part Two: Introduction to Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses continued
Part Three: Bushmeat
Part Four: War and Disease
Part Five: Chikungunya
Part Six: Avian influenza
Part Seven: Reporting on emerging diseases
Part Eight: Disease and Domesticated Animals
Part Nine: The Emergence of Nipah Virus
Part Ten: Monkeypox
Part Eleven: Streptococcus suis
Part Twelve: Salmonella and fish
Part Thirteen: new swine influenza virus detected
Part Fourteen: dog flu strikes Wyoming.
Part Fifteen: Clostridium species.
Part Sixteen:…