The TWiPers solve the case of the Rural Man from North Carolina with Blurred Vision, and discuss the results of single-cell RNA sequencing of Schistosoma mansoni.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin
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Download TWiP #191 (48 MB .mp3, 80 minutes)
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Links for this episode
- PWB on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
- RNAseq atlas of S. mansoni (Science)
- Hero: Kathleen Hussey
- Letters read on TWiP 191
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Case Study for TWiP 191
Visit in Malawi, capital, teenage son of USAID worker urine has started to turn red. New to Malawi. On weekends go 2.5 hr east to lake and place to swim, Lake Malawi. Given pills, taken morning and night, clears up. Rest of family has been swimming in Lake Malawi. All in family are healthy.
Send your case diagnosis, questions and comments to twip@microbe.tv
Music by Ronald Jenkees
Hello dear TWIPers! This is my first time writing.
I am a dermatologist from Romania, who listens with great pleasure to TWIV on her daily 45 minute walk to and from work. When I’m through with the TWIVs, I go on to the other weeks in… and in the last month I started to make my way through the TWIPs, which I find very interesting. Vincent, I have known about TWIV for maybe three years, having found it while watching your virology lectures on youtube, but only listened to it a few times before the pandemic. The walks weren’t regular, long or solitary in those days, because my workplace was somewhere else. Thank you for sharing your discussions. They are a beacon of sanity and rationality, keeping us informed and entertained. I wish all CMEs were half as nice.
I believe the diagnosis to the case from TWIP #191 is urinary schistosomiasis, caused by infection with S. haematobium. The larval forms penetrate the skin and migrate to the bladder where they mature to adult worms. The treatment was praziquantel, which is given in one or two doses. I am curious as to why the rest of the family was not affected – maybe they toweled themselves dry as soon as the came out of the water, although this doesn’t seem to me a reliable way to avoid getting this infection. Daniel or Dickson might know.
Keep doing what you do, because you matter!