Preventing meningitis caused by parasites

[AlohaSteven]

Thanks, Shekelpal; the refs are much appreciated.

In a way the indication L3 in slime are infective may be bad news, since this broadens the pool of potential routes via which L3 can infect humans well beyond the bodies of terrestrial and freshwater mollusks and freshwater crustaceans. In another way, though, the second part of what the abstract says may offer some huge good news even given that L3 are alive and infective in slime:

"Experimental evidence from rats suggests that the local human population, exposed to repeated low-level infections, may become immunized against the rare massive exposure and against clinical disease that might otherwise result after ingestion of heavily infected raw mollusks."
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/ab.../3804/1057

This aspect would be good to know much more about!

Even just a couple of L3 can be very dangerous depending on where in the brain they are burrowing (some important brain structures are only the size of a grain of salt to the size of a grain of rice, so a 2cm larvae burrowing through the center of a critical tiny structure can wreak havoc). So, it would be exciting if killed-L3 proteins, injected into the body, could be demonstrated to generate an immune response against subsequent live L3 invasion.

If so, then --via routine immunization of Puna tots, children, adults, and perhaps immunization of pets & farm animals as well-- there would be yet another angle for preventing catastrophic harm if rat control, slug control, and veggie inspection/cleaning all fail. Far safer to generate an immune response with dead L3 introduced to the body, I would think, than acquiring such at random via the natural experiment wherein immunity may be generated through accidental ingestion of one, two, or several L3 but at grave risk of discomfort and even severe permanent neurological damage.

In the meanwhile, if this report is accurate then it suggests lifelong residents of Puna and those who have been eating Hawaiian veggies for many years both in Puna and on the other islands may have developed some degree of protection through prior low-level exposures, but tourists --and tourist children in particular-- are wide open to devestating attack.

Tourist immune systems would not have had opportunity to do battle with an L3 before, so would have no acquired immunity whatsoever protecting them against being hit hard. Again, if the well-being of Puna's population is not sufficient in itself for the powers which be to bestir themselves, then perhaps a clear, present, and growing danger to tourism will prove an adequate motivation for action. The sort of straightforward basic research being discussed here is not pocket change but is nothing compared to government expenditures in other areas (and it is our tax money being spent, after all, so we have legitimate cause to feel an investment in how it is being spent).


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A pleasant slideshow: http://www.thejoymovie.com

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