TWiP 150: Fast food

This Week in Parasitism

The TWiPers solve the case of the Panamanian Man With Leg Ulcer, and describe how a crab predator preferentially feeds on parasite infected prey - even though the parasite makes them faster!

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

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Links for this episode:

• Parasite enhances susceptibilityto predators (Oecologia)
• Parasite Hero: Miriam Rothschild
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiP 150

Case Study for TWiP 150

Up to Costa Rican border, travel by boat 2.5 hr, up stream through mangroves. Mobile med clinic in village in small island in archipelago. Mother concerned about two children, have a very itchy rash on trunk and arms. Worse at night, needs medicine. Boy is 6 yo, has rash on buttocks, arms, genital area. Nothing out of ordinary in medical history. Living in same village as previous case, few hundred people, home has slat wood floors, toilet is over water. Dogs, pigs, chickens; no electricity; water comes off roof. On exam see rash, on dermoscopy see 1 cm long brown lines, clotted blood deltas at end. In this area many kids have this rash.

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Music by Ronald Jenkees