Thread by @BSPparasitology

It is now 60 days until (& including) the 1st of April, 2022! April '22 marks 𝟲𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 since the British Socety for Parasitology was formed from the Parasitological Section of the Institute for Biology!
To mark this, we will be releasing a #parasite breakthough/fact (1/1)

.. every day for the next 60 days: from 1962 to 2022! We will provide information on both well-studied & unusual parasites such as Angiostrongylus cantonensis, Echinococcus vogeli, Plasmodium falciparum, Mansonella spp., Hirudo medicinalis (leeches) bed bugs, & more! (2/2).

Today, we begin with 1962! Not only was the @BSPparasitology founded in 1962, but for the first time, the full life cycle of the "eye worm" Thelazia callipaeda was described by D.P. Kozlov in the Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Human thelaziasis is an NTD. #parasite

References:
- Image reference: cdc.gov/dpdx/thelazias…
- Reference by Otranto & Dutto, 2008: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
- Profile of Prof Domenico Oranto: ebvs.eu/colleges/EVPC/…

Are you ready for 1963? This is a big one! In 1963, Louis S. “Buddy” Diamond at the NIH, alongside 2 NMRC colleagues, released a paper describing how parasitic protozoa could be stored long-term in liquid nitrogen! Do you have cryovials of precious #parasite samples? Here's why!

- Original paper: degruyter.com/document/doi/1…
- Checking some samples 30 years later: …-wiley-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/epdf/10.11…
- Louis S. Diamond in memoriam: entamoeba.lshtm.ac.uk/buddyim.htm

Here's the second paper again in case that link didn't work for anyone! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.…

In 𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟒, two US parasitologists, Paul C. Beaver & Leon Rosen, published a memorandum in @AJTMH which showed that a previously overlooked Japanese study by Nomura & Lin (1945) had identifed Angiostrongylus cantonensis as a cause for human eosinophilic meningitis. #parasite

This memorandum, alongside their own primary research into eosinophilic meningitis in Hawai’ian patients, flagged Angiostrongylus cantonensis ("rat lungworm") as a public health concern in humans, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. #parasitology #ntds

- Image references: cdc.gov/parasites/angi…; cdc.gov/parasites/angi…

- References: jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…; mauiready.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/hjmph7…; bitly.ws/jV3f

- Obituaries for Paul C. Beaver and Leon Rosen: jstor.org/stable/3284436; link.springer.com/article/10.100…

𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟱: Two doctors in Adelaide, Australia, publish a report of 4 deaths attributed to acute pyogenic meningitis. In the remarkably similar cases, the only apparent cause was amoebae in brain tissue. They would later go on to name this protozoan pathogen Naegleria fowleri.

- Image references: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…; nbcnews.com/healthmain/dea…
- References: https://t.co/8eifax7wsQ; doi.org/10.1002/path.1…

@threadreaderapp unroll