2 down, 4 to go!
Question on the Infection & Immunity exam a couple days ago:
Mr. X presents to you with eggs in his feces and segmented flatworms crawling out of his anus. He is otherwise well. Mr. X is infected with
a) Taenia saginata
b) Taeniasis soliem
c) Diphyllobothrium latum
d) Hymenolepis nana
Now, if like Mr. X you too have segmented flatworms crawling out of your back end, today is your lucky day. The organism in question is (a) and you get it from eating undercooked or raw beef.
Answer key:
Taenia saginata - found in undercooked beef. characterized by it's motility: since cows don't eat the grass around their poo, the organisms need to be able to move onto clean grass (after being pooped out) in order to complete their life cycle. hence, it has been known to crawl out of people's ... ahem... bottoms.
Taeniasis soliem - found in undercooked pork. don't need to be motile because apparently pigs eat *everything*.
Diphyllobothrium latum - found in undercooked fish.
Hymenolepis nana - transmitted through fecal oral contact... kids get this a lot.
Medicine is such a grand, noble profession. Apparently, finding cysts of parasitic organisms in stool samples is a lot like digging for a needle in haystack. And for some species, you need up to 5 negative samples before you can conclusively rule out an infection... so it's like looking for a needle in... 5 haystacks so to speak.
Everything comes down to poo.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
5 particularly brown haystacks?? HAHHAHAHAHA... a bit too graphic I suppose
LOL... don't forget B. cereus - "Fried Rice Syndrome"
Apparently medicine is the only profession where you can still act like you're a kid - i.e. extremely fascinated by bodily functions =P
Post a Comment