One of the most striking features of the Covid-19 pandemic from my perspective has been the massive volume of scientific papers released on the internet. There have been 10’s of thousands of papers which is both amazing and worrying. But why is it worrying, surely the faster we have more information the better? Well maybe not…
 
According to recent studies 2% of researchers admit that they have committed fraud in their work, but they thought that 14% of their colleagues had also committed fraud… fraud is basically lying…. Also in a study of 20,000 biomedical research papers 2% contained deliberately falsified images… this was reported on BBC Inside Science - Science Fraud & Bias, Immunity to COVID-19. [My wife told me about this radio broadcast she heard whilst cuddling our two new Cats Protection foster kittens (Toes and Splodge)!]

“I have a patient with a bright red nose” said the junior Doctor.
 
The Microbiologist double-checked his calendar to make sure it wasn’t March 15th and the junior performing a joke for Comic Relief’s “Red Nose Day”, a charity day here in the UK!
 
“What do you mean a bright red nose” the Microbiologist asked, adding “it’s not Comic Relief Day, you know?” heading off the “fooled you” prank.
 
“What!?”... The junior inhaled deeply, ignored the Microbiologist, and continued “It’s a kind of reddish purple and very painful. It looks a bit like cellulitis but it is in a very odd place, and the patient doesn’t have a fever. What antibiotics do you think we should give?”
 
Muttering, “this isn’t just a dial an antibiotic line”, the Microbiologist decided he would like to see this patient’s nose and find out what was going on himself before advising what treatment should be started…
 
He added “your patient needs a diagnosis before throwing random drugs at them to see if they get better”.
 
As the Microbiologist walked into the patient’s room to introduce himself he couldn’t help but see that the patient did indeed have a bright red nose. He chuckled to himself; the patient definitely didn’t need one of those plastic red noses.
 
After a brief embarrassed pause the Microbiologist finally introduced himself. The patient smiled and then unconsciously reached up and stroked his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
 
With sudden understanding the Microbiologist asked “do you have anything to do with animals, either work or at home?”
 
“I am a keen keeper of Koi carp and have just finished transferring them to their new pond… I designed it myself” the patient said proudly.
 
It was the Microbiologists turn to smile. “You have erysipeloid” he told the patient confidently.
 
“Eh, sip, what? No, I have Koi carp, they’re fish!” said the patient, confused.

I came across a story this week about a patient from Florida, USA, who had been diagnosed with a really unusual infection caused by a microorganism called Naegleria fowleri. It caught my attention because firstly it is very rare and so I was intrigued and secondly because during a lockdown it should be extremely difficult to catch it! So I had to investigate further…
 
What is Naegleria fowleri?
Naegleria fowleri is a free-living amoeba found in freshwater and soil throughout the World, preferring temperatures between 30-45 oC. It does not survive in seawater. The most common risk factor for acquiring N. fowleri is contact with water through sports such as swimming, water skiing and diving as well as messing around in mud or bathing in contaminated hot springs (it is “free-living” after all!). So this explains my curiosity as to how this patient had acquired their infection as it should be very difficult to “get exposed” to N. fowleri during a lockdown, because there wouldn’t be any water sports or other exposures going on at this time!

Bats are getting a hard time at the moment. They seem to be being blamed for all of the infections threatening our species, from Ebola, Marburg, Rabies, Nipah, Hendra and now SARS Cov2. The name for these animal-related human infections is zoonoses. I can just imagine the bats cringing every time the news comes on wondering what they’re going to be blamed for next.
 
You have to admit, it’s not great PR to be associated with the scariest viruses known to cause deadly human infections. But is this fair? Are bats really MORE likely to be the source of infections in humans? Do bats harbour more nasty viruses than other animals? Or are they just getting a bad press and we should cut them some slack?