Toxoplasma and mental change
I'm grateful to 2 people on my Flist who showed me this article about Toxoplasma gondii affecting the human. Since that article names somebody I know quite well I passed him the link and he informed me that his work has been featured also in the Daily Mail. He's not actually named in this article there but from what he said to me, I think he's been named there before. Anyway it's not just about name-dropping by me!
Both of these articles rub me up the wrong way by their sensationalist titles. Cat ownership is *not* a risk factor for human infection by this parasite and infected rats do *not* turn into zombies. But I suppose this kind of writing is just what journalists do to sell their papers.
If you get past the sensationalism there's a lot of good reporting in these articles. I've just done a PhD about Toxoplasma and yes, its association with human mental illness is well documented.
Both of these articles rub me up the wrong way by their sensationalist titles. Cat ownership is *not* a risk factor for human infection by this parasite and infected rats do *not* turn into zombies. But I suppose this kind of writing is just what journalists do to sell their papers.
If you get past the sensationalism there's a lot of good reporting in these articles. I've just done a PhD about Toxoplasma and yes, its association with human mental illness is well documented.