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longesteveryeahboy t1_iydu5yc wrote

Reply to comment by OutrageousMatter in 'Mind control' by parasites influences wolf-pack dynamics in Yellowstone National Park | CNN by irkli

Well no, toxoplasmosis is incurable, you’re infected for life. It’s just that it doesn’t cause disease in most people.

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Rulare t1_iydyj59 wrote

I thought it was curable, but nobody bothers because it's supposedly harmless

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iye3ral wrote

So I study toxo, basically there are two forms of the parasite, one that actively replicates and infects new cells and another that holes up in a bubble inside your cells and basically does nothing. There are drugs to kill the active form, but once any of the parasites shifts into its passive form it’s basically untouchable by your immune system or by medication. And by the time most people realize they’re infected (if they do at all) you would be well past this point.

The passive form will reactivate from time to time, if you’re healthy your immune system shuts it down very easily, but there are always other cysts containing passive parasite, so you never get rid of it. If you’re not healthy you can keep it in check with medicine. So absolutely treatable, but generally not curable.

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kciuq1 t1_iye757l wrote

Man, that is a really fascinating parasite that has a lot of ways to survive.

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iye8rqp wrote

It’s really cool! They can also infected any nucleated cell in your body and can infect any warm blooded animal. They are pretty incredible

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Rulare t1_iyfcsy6 wrote

Thanks for the informative response! I've been around way too many kittens in my life so I assume I have it, so it being completely curable was a nice lie to tell myself. Oh well.

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snarlindog t1_iyejuqw wrote

How hard is it to get a toxo test these days?

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iyeqfwb wrote

Not super involved in the clinical side, but I think if you are at risk, so immunocompromised or pregnant, it’s pretty easy? Not sure if you’re not part of that group tbh

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TKG_Actual t1_iye82nm wrote

....and if you are not healthy? What do you suddenly get a case of Oryctocantropy and start ravaging every head of lettuce in the county?

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iye9nd1 wrote

Lol not sure what oryctocantropy is, but the parasite can essentially infect any part of your body so an immunocompromised person who is untreated would develop a typical infection for whatever part of the body the parasite is in, so like pneumonia or meningitis. And this can worsen or involve other organs until it eventually becomes fatal.

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TKG_Actual t1_iyek4oc wrote

Oh that's a cheap werewolf joke I replaced the Greek word lycan/Lycos with the Latin for rabbit. But yeah I recall a mention that it makes you more prone to taking risks.

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iyeq45d wrote

Oh haha sorry for the unnecessary explanation then

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TKG_Actual t1_iyerasx wrote

It's ok, I don't know much about toxoplasmosis beyond some basics honestly. Like that rodent-feline connection for instance.

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lazyherpatile t1_iyel0u6 wrote

Jokes you have to explain are always funny.

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TKG_Actual t1_iyemd7h wrote

Is that why I don't need to explain you?

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lazyherpatile t1_iyex4lh wrote

Hahahaha omg sorry I didn’t realize you were 12

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TKG_Actual t1_iyf0h1l wrote

Aw, that's a pathetic comeback; but I'm certain you are used to being referred to in that way, it is after all the one consistent aspect of your entire life.

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lazyherpatile t1_iyf141x wrote

I love that you basically just explained your first comeback the same way you had to explain your joke hahahaha

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TKG_Actual t1_iyf2hqk wrote

Oh, so you are functionally illiterate too? Good to know.

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RandomChurn t1_iyex3d2 wrote

> an immunocompromised person who is untreated would develop a typical infection for whatever part of the body the parasite is in, so like pneumonia or meningitis. And this can worsen or involve other organs until it eventually becomes fatal.

It's in Trainspotting. It's what killed the friend who got AIDS. He got a kitten to try to get his gf back but she refused it and the kitten killed him

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Deago78 t1_iye3p3n wrote

You are correct. It is curable with antibiotics. It occurs primarily in immunosuppressed patients. (Primarily poorly managed HIV patients, in humans.) That said, it doesn’t mean the brain function lost or alerted is going to go back to its pre-infection baseline.

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iye8je2 wrote

No, antibiotics won’t clear the parasite in most cases. It has a quiescent form that it spends most of its time in that is almost untouchable. You can only target the active parasites that cause disease, so you can treat active infection, but the parasite is mostt with you for life

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DownvoteDaemon t1_iye3ygy wrote

Really? What are the psychological effects?

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iye4o4b wrote

It’s not super well known, but it has been associated with schizophrenia and suicide. It’s also associated with being more likely to partake in risky behavior. Lots of interesting stuff, but definitely a lot of work is needed to fully understand.

That being said these are just associations. Almost a third of the human population has toxo, and obviously a third of humans don’t have schizophrenia. So not something to panic about if you are infected

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professorDissociate t1_iyed2gn wrote

> almost a third of the human population…

Dude, what the fuck?

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shaka893P t1_iyejzay wrote

Most cats have it, if you have a cat, you most likely have it. Of you get it while pregnant you can have a bigger risk of miscarriage, but if you already have it and get pregnant you don't have the higher risk

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professorDissociate t1_iyek6ev wrote

I just don’t like the idea of little worms swimming around in my organs, okay? They aren’t welcome in there.

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shaka893P t1_iyekfi8 wrote

You need a lot of these things, for example, all humans always have e coli in their guts helps us digest food and we would die without them. We have more bacteria than human cells in us, and that's ok, it's how we evolved.

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professorDissociate t1_iyel8j4 wrote

I’m okay with them in my gut, I guess. I eat food, then they eat my chewed up food, then they shit out good nutrition and I digest the worm shit. That’s a-okay in my book. But little worms just swimming around for fuck-all’s sake, no thank you.

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shaka893P t1_iyelgin wrote

I mean, we also have thousands of mites in our eyelids/lashes/brows ... All humans do

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hazpat t1_iyf64gs wrote

These things? You are lumping symbiotic bacteria with parasitic organisms as if microscopic size make them similar. That's like saying pet elephants ate cool because cats are cool. Two totaly different "things"

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Oodleaf t1_iyfb9p3 wrote

An elephant the size of a cat would be cool AF to be honest

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iyeqqux wrote

Depends on how clean you are when you scoop litter haha

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shaka893P t1_iyeqvk4 wrote

Not really, cats lick their butt, then themselves, then you and you pet them ... You can't get away if they have it

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iyer3xz wrote

Yeah was joking more than anything. But I do know someone who fosters cats that actually is negative for toxo!

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shaka893P t1_iyer9hy wrote

Dang, they're lucky!!! But not all cats have it, so they might just have very healthy cats

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statslady23 t1_iyetcnb wrote

People with three or more cats are much more likely to have toxoplasmosis. I always wondered if that then made them want to collect more cats (toxo mites grow in cat stomachs). Crazy cat ladies may just be toxo bots.

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Al3rtROFL t1_iyduosc wrote

If it evolves... You played the last of us, right?

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longesteveryeahboy t1_iye43so wrote

Well if it evolves to become super pathogenic we’re fucked because it already infects like a third of the human population and is capable of infected any warm blooded animal

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