Microbes, infectious diseases and the causal relationship that links them
The MicroGnome was busy in Queensland last week, revisiting his roots in soil microbiology at the 19th World Congress of Soil Science. His lecture on environmental aspects of melioidosis can be found on the Priobe Net via this link.
Other recent material on melioidosis and its corresponding priobe can be found either here on the Priobe Net or the MicroGnome site.
An editorial on melioidosis was posted recently by our colleagues at Life in the Fastlane.
Happy digging!
Make no mistake about it: our battle is with the germs. The front line is particularly volatile and liable to change in the immediate future. Here is an approximate view of the forces of infection ranged against us, subject to change on the arrival of more up to date disease intelligence.
The symbol conventions used follow the principles of campaign maps. You can see how thinly dispersed health units are in the northwest, compared to the disposition of immediate disease threats.
Those threats include arbovirus infections and neglected bacterial diseases, which you can follow on the Priobe Net and Life in the Fast Lane. Whitmore’s bacillus is particularly notable for its ability to lay low for many months and resurface when the conditions are right, to produce severe illness or less acute infection in pockets of disease activity throughout the Kimberley. Leazar’s personal infection is unknown in this region, but other flavi-, alpha- and assorted other arboviruses are a potential mosquito-borne threat. The build-up of an unprotected civilian population in this region presents a possible vulnerability to the endemic infections of the area. Forewarned is forearmed.
No. Just for once this isn’t about mapping a microbial genome. This is where you can find some disease distribution maps for the infections we’ve already covered on the road to the FACTM pt 1 exam.
Try these out for size, making note of your answers as you go.
The correct answers can be found via these links:
Happy hunting.
Once again melioidosis is in the news. Queensland Health’s Dr Jeff Hanna has highlighted the melioidosis hot spot recently identified in the vicinity of Townsville, and Darwin melioidosis export Prof Bart Currie fronts up on the ABC’s 7.30 Report tonight.
Changing climate conditions in the north, particularly in the northwest, are thought to be responsible for some of the apparent increase in cases that can be blamed on severe weather events. But occupational activities as diverse as expansion of farming, the mining industry and even the local film industry could all contribute to an increase in meaningful encounters with a contaminated environment, and therefore subsequent cases of infection.
For a recent on-line review on melioidosis, see Life in the Fast Lane.
The μGnome got out his set of paintbrushes today to refresh a set of disease maps for the forthcoming tropical medicine breakfast session at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
Gone are the neat little red outlines carefully added to world map outlines. This is the genuine graffiti version in block colour – world distribution of scrub typhus and melioidosis, as of May, 2010.
The stand-alone maps will appear on the Priobe Net shortly.
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