These and other insights into how the language of infection is punctuated can be found in a new chapter in LoI: punctuation (highlighted paragraph at the top of Micrognome’s home page).
The comma, full stop, quotation, question and exclamation marks all get a mention. Apostrophies only get a passing nod, though a future post may give this grammatical problem child a special mention.
Micrognome, November, 2011.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was over in a few action-packed days. During the week surrounding all those high level meetings, Perth-dwellers welcomed a host of visitors from all over the planet.
partying on after sunset
Naturally, there were plenty of events to celebrate and showcase cultural diversity. Flags flew to mark the culmination of the Commonwealth Arts Festival, the best chanteuse sang, and the band played on into the night. The week long party ended with a spectacular display of fireworks on the banks of the Swan River, with the City of Perth as a backdrop.
The Micrognome couldn’t help notice this exhibition of Western Australia’s unique biodiversity, packaged in a cluster of boxes. Not the lab-in-a-box this time, but at least his beloved Kimberley got a generous mention. Sadly missing from this window on cultural diversity was any mention of the diversity of culture; specifically bacterial culture, we know inhabits this State. So much work to so, such large distances and so few already working on it. The Micrognome suspects there may be an opportunity there for an enterprising environmental bacteriologist.
Lab-in-a-box?
This list captures a typical top ten common enteric parasites of medical importance, though the order of importance will vary around Australia. Information on Entamoeba histolytica is given, as this species is a common reason for a test request even if a positive result is relatively uncommon. The pathogenic role of several of the other parasite species is debatable, and detection may be more useful as an indication of poor hygiene, recent international travel or immune compromise. Further details at the CDC.
| Species | Diagnostic stage | Size | Key features |
| Blastocystis hominis | round-oval form | 6-40um | Large central vacuole surrounded by small nuclei |
| Cryptosporidium parvum | oocyst | 4-5um | Round, pink on modified acid-fast stain |
| Endolimax nana | cyst & trophozoite | Cyst, 5-10m; troph, 6-12um | Oval cyst – 4 nuclei; troph variable chromatin |
| Entamoeba coli | cyst & trophozoite | Cyst, 10-35um; troph, 15- 50um | Cyst – 8-16 nuclei; troph – uneven periph chromatin, large karyosome |
| Entamoeba histolytica | cyst & trophozoite | Cyst, 10-20um; troph, 16- 20um | Cyst – 4 nuclei; troph – even periph chromatin, central karyosome, may have ingested erythrocytes |
| Enterobius vermicularis | egg | 50-60um long, 20-40um wide | Flattened on one side, colourless |
| Giardia lamblia | Cyst & trophozoite | Cyst, 8-19um long; troph, 10-20um | Oval or round cyst; troph pear-shaped, 2 nuclei, flagellate |
| Hymenolepis nana | egg | 30-45um | 6-hook oncosphere at centre of thin walled egg |
| Iodamoeba butschlii | cyst & trophozoite | Cyst, 5-20um; troph, 8- 20um | cyst – large glycogen vacuole; troph – large karyosome |
| Schistosoma spp. | egg | S.mansoni egg = 115- 175um long; S.haematobium egg = 112-170um long | S.mansoni egg, prominent lateral spine; S.haematobium egg , terminal spine |
| Strongyloides stercoralis | first stage larva | 180-380um long | Short buccal cavity, mid-body genital primordium |