thesleepfuriousidea

Almost Dr House!

So glad you are here and I hope I'm not too late to get my questions in.

A little background: About 14 months ago I suffered an acute toxoplasma infection that has left me partially blind in my left eye. That fucking sucked but I'll spare everyone the sympathy votes and just say that I have adjusted to as normal a life as I could. Coincidentally, I'm also almost dr sleepfuriousidea (Linguistics, though. There's a clue in my name for bonus points). My biggest fear was that I wouldn't be able to read normally again and my career would go off the rails. Fortunately my brain has adjusted to the retinal scar I was left with and I can read and write again with relative comfort.

One of the hardest things to deal with at the time, however, were uncertainties over where/when I got infected. I had seen a few ophthalmologists in New Zealand, Korea and Mexico while I was infected (long story) and one infectious disease specialist. None could be sure of where I got it from but thought it was likely from raw meat, something I've grown up eating since my childhood in arctic Canada. This happened in NZ, where I'm studying and I definitely had a small chunk of raw beef within weeks of my infection. I was in contact with a toxo specialist there who also suggested that it would likely be from meat. However, I've also come across literature documenting infections from water sources (for humans in Victoria BC, Brazil). Also, marine mammals (otters in Cali; dolphins in NZ) have been found with toxo. Quite stupidly I also had water in NZ while camping that may not have been pure. I am wondering, is there a (relatively straight forward) way of testing meat and water for toxo. For example, I know the exact farm that the raw meat came from and also the location where I drank from a mountain stream. If I brought my colleagues in a medical department samples would they be able to check for toxo without having to infect rodents and dissect their brains? I was struck by the complex methodologies in the literature for toxo and would be shocked if there wasn't a simpler way to find toxo. Also, are symptoms of acute toxo infections indicative of source in any way?

Many thanks!

TL;DR How can someone test for toxo in meat and water?

I'm not sure Wall Street is forgetting as much as they are shoving a finger up everyone's ass.

Thanks almost dr house. While I don't have the records where I'm at I'm fairly certain the lab results were for antibody A as you called it. The doctors were fairly sure that it was a recent infection when I was diagnosed. I had flu-like symptoms at first, then noticed a blurry spot in my vision, which turned out to be from the parasite nesting itself in my eye. The latter symptom is what brought me to an ophthalmologist who sent my blood tests to a lab.

I think I'm mostly over that part and accept that I'll probably never know. I'll definitely be following your work though. I'm grateful there are people looking into toxo. What a fascinating parasite. I was floored after reading Dr Flegr's stuff. Subsequently I've gotten rid of my motorbike, although that is more due to the fact that I just don't see as well as I used to. Nonetheless, I've been noticing some of the things Flegr wrote about (eg reduced fear of noises; not looking both ways when crossing the street), although it is hard to tell if that is from a priming effect, the parasite, or something else.

Congrats on being almost done and I look forward to learning more.