miss akay

Paragonimus-westermani drawing

today, dr hotez (our chief parasite celebrity) told a story of his trip to china where he was working with a bunch of other parasite specialists. he was the honorary guest and they brought out a huge plate of raw crab for everyone to eat. as the guest, he of course was expected to dive in first. unfortunately, raw crabs sometimes carry a flatworm larvae called Paragonimus westermani, known to cause lung inflammation and secondary infection (aka. Chinese lung fluke) and was going to teach them all about it during seminar the next day. he was momentarily petrified! he didn't know what to do. this was one of the critters he had traveled to china to teach them about! the irony.

then one of the hosts announced to him (upon seeing his hesitation) that the crabs came from a lake (?) that was known to not be contaminated with Paragonimus.

posted by miss akay @ 8:40 PM