TWiP taps into Dickson’s knowledge of Trichinella to discuss an outbreak in humans who consumed rare bear meat, and the impact of globalization and climate change on the epidemiology of the species.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

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• Outbreak of human trichinellosis (CCDR)
• Impact of climate change on Trichinella (Food Waterborne Parasit)
• Letters read on TWiP 246

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

Founder of Floating Doctors Ben LaBrot joins TWiP to solve the case of the 1 year old in northeastern Panama with a fatal leg infection, followed by a discussion of the history and mission of Floating Doctors.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Daniel Griffin, and Christina Naula

Guest: Ben LaBrot

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• Floating Doctors
• Letters read on TWiP 245

A man in his early 20s comes in reporting pain when he urinates or ejaculates. He reports that he is sexually active. He does confide that he has been in a relationship with a woman but he had a sexual encounter outside this relationship about 2 weeks ago when they were on a break and he did not wear protection. He feels like he needs to urinate more often and describes thin white discharge from the penis. He reports that he has no history of any sexually transmitted infections and had no medical issues prior to this.

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

Lilach Sheiner joins TWiP to talk about her career and her work on engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Christina Naula

Guest: Lilach Sheiner

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• Engineering T. gondii for protein secretion (Nat Micro)

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

TWiP solves the case of the Woman with White Worms, and submits a new case involving a 1 year old in northeastern Panama with a fatal leg infection.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Daniel Griffin, and Christina Naula

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• Enterobius, the pinworm (TWiP 19)
• Hero: Mary Pritchard

This case comes from Panama mid summer 2024. A provider for Floating Doctors working in the coastal region in northeastern Panama. This case involves a one year old, so the history is a bit difficult, but there may have initially been a scratch or some sort of break in the skin. Otherwise healthy but over a period of time this area expands and becomes a deep necrotic wound on the leg. Several other nearby wounds develop and become deep and infected. By the time this one year old is seen by the provider much of the leg appears eaten away. This is just the tip of the iceberg as a number of others develop similar wounds in the area. No prior medical history.

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

TWiP reviews a study showing that intestinal helminth infection impairs vaccine-induced T cell responses through an IL-10 pathway, which compromised protection against antigenically drifted SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Daniel Griffin and Christina Naula

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• Worms impair COVID vaccines (Sci Trans Med)
• Heligmosomoides image (Wiki Commons)

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

Sean Murphy joins TWiP to discuss his career and the work of his laboratory to assess the daily natural history of asymptomatic Plasmodium infections in adults and older children in Katakwi, Uganda.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier and Christina Naula

Guest: Sean Murphy

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• Daily natural history of Plasmodium infections (Lancet Microbe)

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

TWiP solves the case of the AIDS patient who developed fever and watery diarrhea after drinking NYC tap water, and present a new case for your sleuthing.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Daniel Griffin

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• Cryptosporidium (TWiP 18)
• Letters read on TWiP 239

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New Case

Man in his 70s originally from Mainland China, then Hong Kong who has been living in the US for decades is admitted to the hospital with fever for 6 days. He reports that he saw his primary care physician in Queens and was referred to the hospital after blood work revealed a sodium level of 123 and an increased monocyte count. Pt reports drenching sweats, lots of outdoor activity walking in local parks in Queens. He reports he does not feel particularly sick. PMH-HTN, BPH PSH-neg Social-retired, no wife, has one son, no pets, no exotic exposures or recent travel VS febrile to 39.5, tachycardia, meets sepsis criteria PE -unremarkable Labs, nl wbc, eos-0, elevated neutrophils and monocytes, Na-123, elevated AST, elevated ALT, low platelets, low Hct, CT Chest A/P unremarkable

Send your guesses to [email protected] with TWiP 239 in the subject line

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

Michael Barrett joins TWiP to discuss progress in the elimination of human African trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin, Dickson Despommier and Christina Naula

Guest: Michael Barrett

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• Elimination of human African trypanosomiasis (PLoS NTD)
• Hero: David Livingstone

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Send your guesses to [email protected] with TWiP 237 in the subject line

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

Marilyn Fabbri joins TWiP to reveal the case of a patient who became very ill after he and a number of friends attended a large dinner where venison and boar were served.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin, Dickson Despommier and Christina Naula

Guest: Marilyn Fabbri

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• Toxoplasma gondii (TWiP 12)
• Parasitic Diseases Lectures #15: Toxoplasmosis
• Letters read on TWiP 237

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New Case

Man in his 60s with HIV/AIDS CD4 count less than 50, CD4% less than 5% and elevated viral load (VL) with report of prior CNS toxoplasmosis requiring a craniotomy, disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), comes in with fever and very watery diarrhea x 4 days. He reports that he lives in Georgia but comes up to NY for his HIV care and stays in NYC.

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Music by Ronald Jenkees

Marion Avril of MalarVx, Inc. joins TWiP to discuss an accelerated prime-and-trap regimen using repRNA-based circumsporozoite vaccine.

Hosts: Dickson Despommier and Christina Naula

Guest: Marion Avril

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• repRNA-based CSP malaria vaccine (NPJ vaccines)
• Hero: Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela

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Send your guesses to [email protected] with TWiP 235 in the subject line

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Music by Ronald Jenkees