The Microbiologist gave a big sigh. It was a beautiful spring day outside, perfect for hitting the forest trails, and here he was sat at the duty desk advising on how to treat athletes foot… he sighed again…
 
The phone rang and with a heavy heart the Microbiologist answered.
 
“I have a patient who I think has a fungal infection” said the voice on the other end of the line.
 
“Here we go again” thought the Microbiologist.
 
“What kind of fungal infection?”
 
“I’m not really sure. He has a lump on his foot which has been getting worse since he came back from Africa a few months ago” said the voice.
 
The Microbiologist sat up straight. This was more like it, something weird and wonderful.
 
“Who am I speaking to? What was your patient doing in Africa? Did he hurt himself, cuts to his feet, anything like that?”
 
“Oh sorry, it’s the Dermatologist here, busy clinic and forgot my manners. The patient was volunteering, helping to build a school in a rural village, he was there for a long time and I suspect as he was wearing flip-flops a lot, he had many scratches and cuts to his feet during that time. I thought it might be another case of sporotrichosis, but there is no sporotrichoid spread and the lump is completely painless. There does look to be a sinus forming as well. What do you think?”
 
“It does sound like eumycetoma. Here’s what I think we should do…”

Viruses are boring! I mean, what’s the point to viruses? All they do is make us sick, right? You just have to look at the past year to know that, and you can’t turn on the TV without seeing some product that “kills all known germs… including the coronavirus… dead!” Shouldn’t we be trying to eliminate all viruses, wouldn’t the World be better if there were no viruses?
 
But some say not all viruses are bad for us!? More importantly, some say there would be no humans if there were no viruses!! How stupid is that?!
 
Well to look at this question, let’s first consider what we are, mammals.

One thing lockdown has taught me is that being outdoors in whatever weather the UK can throw at me is something to be embraced as much as possible. I’ve been fortunate. By being a healthcare worker, I’ve been able to leave the house and get a change of scenery even if it’s just a hospital building. On top of that the ECIC and I have a nice garden we can use at home to relax in the fresh air (sometimes more fresh than is comfortable!).
 
The ECIC and I are now even more lucky. We have recently been able to buy a bit of land to turn into our own little growing space for fruit and vegetables… okay, this may not be your idea of fun, but we like it…. Whilst we’re busy digging out the brambles and nettles we have been chewing over ideas about how to look after our crops, and one of our problems to solve is water.
 
The land we have has no mains water. We can collect a lot of water from the roof of our shed and greenhouses (planning permission pending!), but if we need more then we’ll have to look somewhere else. One option is the small stream nearby, so we wandered over to have a look at what it’s like… and it’s ORANGE!