At long last there has been a truly European epidemic, or ‘Eurodemic’ (an outbreak of truly EU-ge proportions), to use a term originally coined by Broughton-D’Lirium.
About Tim Inglis
Medical Microbiologist with a fascination for microbes and their diseases. I write on-line teaching materials and host educational material from like-minded physicians, pathologists and scientists at The Priobe Net
The Four R Rule
December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
It would be fascinating to run a fly-on-the-wall documentary on life at trolley level in a local Emergency Department. When you’ve been there, done it and survived to watch TV again, the dramatised version served up in your average medical soap is about as true to life as Harry Potter. Someone will just have to come up with ED-trolleycam. The MicroGnome was left under no illusions when struck down with a travel-related infection following a week with the Lab Without Walls in East Timor. He became a victim of the Four R Rule:
Election bandaid
August 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
While the MicroGnome exercised his voting right in yesterday’s Federal Infection, Ameritous Professor Broughton D’Lirium watched the unfolding saga with the studied fascination of a seasoned political epidemiologist.
Federal Infection Watch
August 12, 2010 By 1 Comment
Ameritous Professor Broughton-Delirium noted with pleasure the official announcement by the WHO this week that the influenza pandemic was officially over. In a moment of psephological lucidity, he realised that this may explain the steady waning of local interest in pollyvirus infections.
Crazy Bug Hunter 007
June 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Anton Breinl led expeditions to Brazil and survived yellow fever. He had also survived an accidental infection with trypanosomes, using an experimental medication to treat himself and thus securing a place among that small group of CBHs who have used themselves as laboratory animals.
Crazy Bug Hunter 006
May 17, 2010 By 1 Comment
Fleming’s role in the discovery and subsequent development of penicillin is well-known parable of the importance of serendipity in medical research. Fewer people know anything about the Scots bacteriologist’s earlier discovery of lysosyme or his work on the bacteriology of traumatic wound infection. It is this last topic that earns Fleming his status as a crazy bug hunter.
The General Infection of 2010
May 15, 2010 By 1 Comment
As epidemics go, the General Infection of 2010 pales into insignificance alongside the swine flu pandemic of 2009. Professor Broughton-Delirium was glued to his TV set throughout the finals stages of the epidemic, fascinated by the epidemiological drama unfolding in front of his eyes…
Crazy Bug Hunter 004
March 29, 2010 By 4 Comments
Ronald Ross had a passion for hunting down bugs not restricted to Plasmodium species. While pursuing malaria in India, his work was interrupted by a cholera epidemic in Bangalore. He entreated public health officials to introduce a sanitation programme, but lacked the charisma, the contacts or the clout to put knowledge into practice. Like many of the Victorian gentlemen bug hunters who had been early adopters of Pasteur’s germ theory, he was ahead of his time
Crazy Bug Hunters 002
December 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
In this year of Darwin anniversary celebrations, the name Alfred Russel Wallace has surfaced frequently. He was the co-author with Charles Darwin of the first scientific paper on natural selection (Linnean Society, 1st July, 1858), though in subsequent years Darwin’s reputation overshadowed Wallace’s. The evidence supports the view that Alfred Russel Wallace came to his conclusions independently from Darwin as a result of his travel in the Amazon basin and subsequently in Southeast Asia, where he sought evidence in support of the emerging theory of transmutation of species.
Crazy Bug Hunters 001
October 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Dr Jesse William Lazear (1866 – 1900) In 1900 Dr Jesse William Lazear joined the Yellow Fever Commission team in Cuba under Walter Reed. He was employed to conduct studies into the bacteriology of tropical diseases. Following up on Ronald Ross’s recent discovery of the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria, and the theory [...]
