Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And
Speaker 1: you know, Julie, we live in a we have a
Speaker 1: pretty good you know, we we have access to clean water.
Speaker 1: We live in a relatively parasite free environment. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all have it. We have our parasites. Um, they're
Speaker 1: they're inevitable to a certain degree. But but but when
Speaker 1: you when you really started looking around at some of
Speaker 1: the the problems that that are dealt with in some
Speaker 1: of the more developing parts of the world, UM, it
Speaker 1: really is a wake up call to just how thankful
Speaker 1: we should be. Not to get to you know, Gucci here,
Speaker 1: but but we are. In this episode, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about, um, something that is both on on one hand,
Speaker 1: a very gross and a very fascinating organism, a parasitic
Speaker 1: organism that is of interest just because it is an
Speaker 1: organism that carries out it's uh, it's it's genetic mission
Speaker 1: in a very peculiar and engaging way. It's a very
Speaker 1: stealthy parasite, very stealthy, and we can admire it's uh
Speaker 1: it's purity, you know. But but on the other hand,
Speaker 1: it is also a huge um world health issue. It is,
Speaker 1: it is something that is of a great concern to
Speaker 1: organizations like the World Health Organization and particularly the Carter
Speaker 1: Center based here in Atlanta, who we've been chatting with,
Speaker 1: you especially, have been chatting with UH this week to
Speaker 1: get geared up for this episode on river blindness. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, usually we will talk about parasites, and as
Speaker 1: you say, we'll talk about them as as destructive forces,
Speaker 1: but we don't always go into these um these larger
Speaker 1: public health arenas. So I think it'll be really interesting
Speaker 1: to today talk about um again. Like you say, the
Speaker 1: parasite itself, but what sort of destruction actually happens when
Speaker 1: a parasite really infiltrates a community. UM. So, we are
Speaker 1: talking about something called oncos or hiasis. This is also
Speaker 1: known as river blindness. It's a parasitic disease caused by
Speaker 1: tiny worms or nematodes Uncle serica volvulus worm in particular,
Speaker 1: and it is transmitted by flies, black fly specifically, which
Speaker 1: are these nasty little things. When when I lived up
Speaker 1: in Canada and Newfoundland as a kid, we had we
Speaker 1: had black flies, and they were vicious like that. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: now I'm not certain it's exactly the same. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe it's just a cousin of the black fly. But
Speaker 1: but just the word black fly even now inspires itching
Speaker 1: and slapping on my part. All right, so it kind
Speaker 1: of strikes fear into your heart already. Um, well, imagine
Speaker 1: if it was carrying this this parasite, um, and you
Speaker 1: were then infected by one of these bites. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: and the thing about when we're talking about one of
Speaker 1: these bites, and certainly, like when I was in Canada
Speaker 1: dealing with a black fly, you get a couple of bites.
Speaker 1: But in some of these these these areas like Uganda
Speaker 1: or or or certain parts of South America. Um, you're
Speaker 1: talking about like bytes or more per hour when you're
Speaker 1: out and about, right, So you're just getting bombarded with
Speaker 1: these bites and then these these are infected bites. And
Speaker 1: that's really key to the transmission as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're you're not probably going to get this parasite unless
Speaker 1: you get multiple, multiple bites here. But let's just talk
Speaker 1: about before we start talking about the Carter Center, we
Speaker 1: talked about the parasite itself, let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the symptoms. Um we're talking about intense itching, Yeah, itching.
Speaker 1: The accounts that I was reading and listening to about this,
Speaker 1: we're talking a lot level of itching that most of
Speaker 1: us can't really fathom, like like constant, NonStop, extreme itching
Speaker 1: that that does not cease, can prevent, can can really
Speaker 1: prevent sleeping, and and and and still insomnia for years
Speaker 1: and uh. And it's not uncommon for people to commit
Speaker 1: suicide to just just over the itching alone. Right. You've
Speaker 1: got skin discoloration, of course, and you've got rashes, eye diseases,
Speaker 1: and most notably this can lead to permanent blindness. And
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit more about the blindness aspect
Speaker 1: of this and how the worm accomplishes this. But as
Speaker 1: you can already tell, this is UM an incredibly tormenting,
Speaker 1: devastating disease, particularly if you are in one of these
Speaker 1: developing nations and you already are poverty stricken, are already
Speaker 1: dealing with a host of other issues just trying to
Speaker 1: live your life on a day to day basis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there are other particularly harmful diseases that are that
Speaker 1: are often a problem in these areas as well. I
Speaker 1: mean these are areas where we're dealing with HIV AIDS
Speaker 1: in many cases, and there's a huge effort to to
Speaker 1: tackle that public health concern, and it's in in the
Speaker 1: past especially, it's been easy for stuff like river blindness
Speaker 1: to fall to the wayside. Another thing to keep in
Speaker 1: mind is that this tends to and you'll have communities
Speaker 1: where you have like ninety percent infection rate, like most
Speaker 1: of the village, most of the community is infected with
Speaker 1: this UH, with this organism and essentially have river blindness.
Speaker 1: But it's generally in your thirties and forties where it
Speaker 1: really becomes debilitating where you see blindness set in. So
Speaker 1: it's taking people out during that what should be some
Speaker 1: of the most active decades of their life. You have
Speaker 1: so people that are otherwise you know, the of of
Speaker 1: sound mind and body. But now that first they're robbed
Speaker 1: of to a certain extent, their sanity by by the
Speaker 1: this itching, this constant itching. They can't sleep constantly having
Speaker 1: to deal with this, and then they're obbed to their
Speaker 1: side as well well. They can't so then they can't
Speaker 1: hold down a job right um, they can't take care
Speaker 1: of their children, they can't harvest crops, um, you know,
Speaker 1: they can't receive an education, so it's basically stripping them
Speaker 1: of their livelihoods and compounding these cycles of poverty for generations. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a huge economic impact here. We're talking
Speaker 1: about it affecting eighteen million people around the world with
Speaker 1: the cases in Africa, and it is the leading cause
Speaker 1: of preventable blindness in the world and is endemic to
Speaker 1: thirty seven countries in Africa and in Latin America. All Right,
Speaker 1: so let's uh, let's talk about this disease cycle that
Speaker 1: happens this with this parasite and how it's being um
Speaker 1: carried around and the mandibles of these black flies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess we'll start with the black flies. They're flying
Speaker 1: around there and they're they're carrying uh this uh this
Speaker 1: infection the larva. Right, so yeah, let's set the scene here,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about swiftly flowing rivers and streams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is which that alone through me when I was
Speaker 1: first looking into this, because you you know, when you're
Speaker 1: dealing with stagnant waters are still waters, there's always this
Speaker 1: potential for for something horrible to brew there. But but
Speaker 1: fast flowing, clean waters and that's that should be safe, right,
Speaker 1: Well not. So you have the black fly that's infected
Speaker 1: by the larva, all right, it's got it in its mandibles,
Speaker 1: and the black fly seeks out prey. It wants to
Speaker 1: feed on some blood. So it finds these various villages
Speaker 1: who are hanging out around the water, bathing in the water,
Speaker 1: collecting drinking water. I mean, this is the sin of
Speaker 1: their life. So they're there. There's no avoiding contact with
Speaker 1: the water. Other community is often you know, adjacent to
Speaker 1: the water. So black fly bites you and then you
Speaker 1: get the larva in your skin, yes, and and then
Speaker 1: things begin to proliferate. Yep, that's right. So the parasite
Speaker 1: is entering through that the skin that's been pierced by
Speaker 1: the fly, and they migrate inform nodules and the skin
Speaker 1: and then they mature. Yeah, basically they were talking about nodules.
Speaker 1: We're talking about like little little spheres in the skin,
Speaker 1: like little round colonies, little it's almost like the nodules
Speaker 1: of your spine that you can feel in your back. Right.
Speaker 1: This this is something that's going to become that apparent
Speaker 1: on your skin when you see that kind of bump
Speaker 1: um forming. Yeah, they look like little like little tumors
Speaker 1: or little just little balloons of worms basically, and these
Speaker 1: things reproducing an astonishing rate and and a really long
Speaker 1: lived like you tend not to think of things like
Speaker 1: a nematode living for nine twelve upwards of you know,
Speaker 1: over twelve years up to fifteen years of life in
Speaker 1: this worm that is living inside of this tiny little
Speaker 1: round the globe in your skin. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: kind of think of it as like tense city, Like
Speaker 1: your body becomes tense city for them. These nodules are
Speaker 1: these places that they migrate back and forth too, because
Speaker 1: they are either moving back and forth to join other worms,
Speaker 1: are mating with other worms. So there's all this activity
Speaker 1: going on um in your body, and of course that's
Speaker 1: why you're getting some of these horrible symptoms. These worms
Speaker 1: are mating, uh in they're they're laying eggs. Said A
Speaker 1: thousand larvae a day. Yeah, these, Yeah, a thousand of
Speaker 1: these microfilarre per day are being laid inside your skin.
Speaker 1: So it just it's it's exponential, It just it just
Speaker 1: builds up like crazy. So the body progressively it becomes
Speaker 1: more and more ravaged by this. You have these uh,
Speaker 1: these non nodules are popping up everywhere. They're they're they're itching,
Speaker 1: and then if it spreads to your eyes, that's where
Speaker 1: you encounter some real problems. Yeah. Okay, so, and that
Speaker 1: sounds weird because you think about a worm, you probably
Speaker 1: are thinking about a nerveform or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: Are not thinking about a worm. That is the size
Speaker 1: of the period at the end of a sentence. But
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is that's the size of
Speaker 1: these horms and they can travel to the eye where
Speaker 1: they create severe lesions and this is what it can
Speaker 1: lead to blindness. Um. So that is a huge concern obviously,
Speaker 1: because again this is debilitating for the person. And the
Speaker 1: idea is that you want to try to get or
Speaker 1: intervene with medication before this happens. And we'll talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about the medication later. Um, but let's
Speaker 1: talk about when you are infected. You you are the
Speaker 1: host that's infected. You are then contributing to the rest
Speaker 1: of the life cycle of this parasite because you're infected,
Speaker 1: you're bitten again, and then another fly becomes infected with
Speaker 1: the larvae from your body in the cycle just continue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're like a resupply camp. You know, we talked about
Speaker 1: parasitic life cycles before and and that's generally how it goes.
Speaker 1: The organism is not living its entire life cycle inside
Speaker 1: your body. You are just a stopover in the same
Speaker 1: way that a human will occupy won't occupy a single
Speaker 1: job that their entire life, or live in one house
Speaker 1: for an entire life. You know, it's it's it's a cycle,
Speaker 1: except the cycle in this case always comes back around
Speaker 1: at the same place. Yeah. That reminds me of when
Speaker 1: we did an episode on toxoplasmosis and how it uses
Speaker 1: rats and cats to continue its life cycle and even
Speaker 1: changes the behavior of those those animals and perhaps even people,
Speaker 1: which makes me think about this parasite and how it
Speaker 1: also can change the body's immune response. It can tinker
Speaker 1: with how things are working inside of us. And you're
Speaker 1: talking for us about the Wallbachia bacteria. Yeah, yeah, so okay,
Speaker 1: this this worm is not a single parasite or a
Speaker 1: single organism parasite. It actually contains the Wolbachia bacteria, which
Speaker 1: is in and of itself unusual. But the reason him
Speaker 1: why that bacteria is hitching a ride with Anco sacs
Speaker 1: um psarchiasis is because it actually does a job for
Speaker 1: that worm. Um. What happens is that when it infiltrates
Speaker 1: the human body, and our white blood cells go, oh,
Speaker 1: there's there's something going on here. Um. Those white blood cells,
Speaker 1: specifically neutrophiles, which are specialized white blood cells. They surround
Speaker 1: the the infection point. But what happens here is that
Speaker 1: that bacteria has already created a ring around the worm
Speaker 1: and is basically cloaking that worm from the white blood cells.
Speaker 1: So the white blood cells a cloaking device, the bacterial
Speaker 1: cloaking device used by the bacteria to infiltrate our bodies
Speaker 1: defense systems. Yeah. Yeah, So the white blood cells are
Speaker 1: then creating another ring around the bacterial ring and trying
Speaker 1: to attack that. But it's specialized, right, so it can't
Speaker 1: actually attack the worm itself. It can't even get to
Speaker 1: the worm. Um. And then you have something called eosinophiles,
Speaker 1: and this sort of like the cleanup crew of our body.
Speaker 1: This is another type of white blood cell, and it
Speaker 1: usually could get to the worm and take it out. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's like, um, it's sort of like the crime scene
Speaker 1: clean up white blood cell of our body. But again
Speaker 1: because it's got the double ring around it. Now it
Speaker 1: can't get through the other white blood cells, it can't
Speaker 1: get through the bacteria. It's not going to make its
Speaker 1: way to the worm. Which is amazing because what it's
Speaker 1: doing is it's gaming our immune system. This parasite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like it's throwing up some some interference. It's like
Speaker 1: some sort of like a bank haist kind of a flick.
Speaker 1: It's it's like coming to mind, you know where where
Speaker 1: it's like the bank haist itself is just distraction. And
Speaker 1: then the the the guy who can say today can't
Speaker 1: get in to stop the bad guy because the police
Speaker 1: response is surrounding the building. Uh. Kind of some more
Speaker 1: thing going on here with the with with with our
Speaker 1: nemesis here or misdirection like we talked about with magicians
Speaker 1: what they do to our brains to try to get
Speaker 1: us to focus on something else. Um. So this is
Speaker 1: how amazing this parasite is and and also how detrimental,
Speaker 1: as you can see, it can be because it's just
Speaker 1: playing havoc with your body. Um. And we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about the ways in which it has been combated and
Speaker 1: want to take a quick break, Yeah, we'll take you
Speaker 1: a quick break, and when we come back we will
Speaker 1: talk about how we're actually fighting this thing and and
Speaker 1: really thanks to uh, to the Carter Center and in
Speaker 1: other efforts, were actually defeating the thing. All Right, we're
Speaker 1: back in reading about anco psarchiusis it also happens to
Speaker 1: fall in the same week where I'm I'm reading a
Speaker 1: lot about the xeno morph from Aliens, which also has
Speaker 1: a parasitic a fictional parasitic life cycle. And of course
Speaker 1: there's a there's a place, there's a part in the
Speaker 1: original film Alien where they're asking the android ash Um,
Speaker 1: how do we defeat it? How do we defeat this, uh,
Speaker 1: this organism? And he tells them you can't. So there's
Speaker 1: there's no way you're gonna be able to kill it. Uh.
Speaker 1: He just tells them, you know, you have my sympathies,
Speaker 1: symp sympathies. And the interesting thing about uncle siasis is
Speaker 1: when we attempt to fight it, killing it is not
Speaker 1: really an option on the table. Is so our our
Speaker 1: means of defeating it is not going in there and
Speaker 1: wiping it out, rather waiting it out and keeping it
Speaker 1: from reproducing. That's right. So we're trying to control it
Speaker 1: and we're trying to um to lessen the symptoms, and
Speaker 1: so the disease is really just treated here. Um, it's
Speaker 1: as you say, it's not eradicable at least at this point.
Speaker 1: So that is done through something called ibra mactin, which
Speaker 1: is an oral medicine. And this is part um. This
Speaker 1: is really part of this, really the great part of
Speaker 1: this story which involves Carter Center and involves Murk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the parasite blinding people not the great part, no, No,
Speaker 1: but the things that we're doing to to to curb
Speaker 1: it and to control it and to and to address
Speaker 1: the public health side of it is amazing and pretty
Speaker 1: pretty much just an awesome story for everybody involved. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in n this is the only part of the
Speaker 1: story here, Murk and company pledge donate mecdicine, which is
Speaker 1: ib macdin, for as long as necessary to all people
Speaker 1: affected by the disease and endemic countries. This is a
Speaker 1: huge deal, right. Yeah, say what you will about the
Speaker 1: large pharmaceutical companies, but this is just there is an
Speaker 1: example of of of a company doing the right thing
Speaker 1: here and just just putting public health above all else. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And when we're talking, um, just so everybody gets an
Speaker 1: idea of the scope of this. Since two thousand and ten,
Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty million medicine treatments have
Speaker 1: been distributed, and presumably many more until this is, you know,
Speaker 1: completely managed to the point to zero where there's zero
Speaker 1: infections across the world. And to put that the number
Speaker 1: of treatments in perspective to this is not something you
Speaker 1: take every day. This is something you take annually. So
Speaker 1: you'll you'll dose up on medicine once a year, but
Speaker 1: you'll do it for about fifteen years because the idea
Speaker 1: is that every year you want to pump the stuff
Speaker 1: in there, keep the females from reproducing, the females that
Speaker 1: are already living inside your body, keep them from reproducing
Speaker 1: for their entire life cycle. And again, these things live
Speaker 1: nine twelve m generally that the estimate I was saying
Speaker 1: was like nine to twelve years, call it fifteen and
Speaker 1: you're safe, right, Um, Basically, you want to wait it out,
Speaker 1: don't let it reproduce for the rest of its life,
Speaker 1: and then at the end of fifteen years, nothing else
Speaker 1: has been new has been born. You'll be clean. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So again, you know, Mark has pledged to you know,
Speaker 1: indemic countries to help keep this under control. The pill
Speaker 1: does kill immature worms in the body, and if they
Speaker 1: can't reproduce in the human body, we defeat it ultimately
Speaker 1: exactly because it breaks that cycle. Right. So if you
Speaker 1: get you know bit again and you know, anyway, the transmission,
Speaker 1: what we're talking about here is interruption and elimination, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit more about that. But um,
Speaker 1: but macdisene is is great. It relieves itching and in
Speaker 1: whose vision and prevents blindness. UM. So hopefully you can
Speaker 1: get in there at the right time to help prevent
Speaker 1: that blindness because essentially, what you're doing is you're giving
Speaker 1: uh people their lives back, because if you can't work,
Speaker 1: if you can't take care of yourself, if you are
Speaker 1: in a family that has already stretched to live you
Speaker 1: know again, day to day living here, um, then most
Speaker 1: likely you're going to be kind of put to the wayside.
Speaker 1: And for years some people have been living outside of
Speaker 1: their communities because they just don't have the resources to
Speaker 1: take care of people who um have river blindness. UM.
Speaker 1: So anyway, this really is sort of a life giving
Speaker 1: drug and a development that happened in conjunction with the
Speaker 1: Carter Center. So let's talk about the Carter Center, um,
Speaker 1: real quickly. These guys are a leader in disease eradication
Speaker 1: and elimination. They target diseases that no one knew um
Speaker 1: or did little or nothing about before the diseases like
Speaker 1: something like river blindness were even recognized as a neglected disease.
Speaker 1: And they've been doing this since the eighties. Uh, so
Speaker 1: they are out there on the front field. But not
Speaker 1: only that, they work like in tandem with the countries
Speaker 1: and the program administrators, um, you know, the community based volunteers.
Speaker 1: And this is a huge effort because not just like hey,
Speaker 1: we're this one organization and we're gonna bring this down
Speaker 1: on high. Everybody can have this. I mean this takes
Speaker 1: a huge UM commitment first of all, and the second
Speaker 1: well cooperation um different countries, um, you know, different levels
Speaker 1: of government to get this. You know, going yeah and
Speaker 1: think because once you get it going to where it's
Speaker 1: such a long term process. You're talking because again you're
Speaker 1: talking about uh supplying this to two communities for a
Speaker 1: period of fifteen years, and you need everybody to take
Speaker 1: it because because again these communities are dealing you're dealing
Speaker 1: with like infection. Right, So it's like everybody so and
Speaker 1: everybody has to take it because if if only some
Speaker 1: people take this medication, if some are abstaining because of
Speaker 1: of real or perceived side effects to taking it or
Speaker 1: some sort of I read some stuff too about you know,
Speaker 1: at times there have been like fears that oh, it
Speaker 1: will make me sterile, or or concerns that more traditional
Speaker 1: medical practices in a culture would treat would be actually
Speaker 1: be better at treating this condition than outsider medicine. So
Speaker 1: you have to do a lot of real education and
Speaker 1: re education UM and keep that up for fifteen years
Speaker 1: as well. So it's a it's a huge commitment. And
Speaker 1: uh and the fact that the Carter Center has been
Speaker 1: so proactive and it is really amazing. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think one of the keys UM in learning about the program,
Speaker 1: particularly the river blind this program UM that that they do.
Speaker 1: It's not just okay, here's a strug from an outsider.
Speaker 1: What they really have done is they've allowed these countries
Speaker 1: and these communities and these different levels of government to
Speaker 1: take this on this the education programs and UM the
Speaker 1: medication on themselves and distribute it to the communities that
Speaker 1: need it to the people that need it, so that
Speaker 1: people are understanding it as not an outsider agenda, but
Speaker 1: as an agenda that is important um inside the community.
Speaker 1: And so I think that has gotten everybody on board.
Speaker 1: So in that sense, you know, the CAR Center is
Speaker 1: also helping them that you know, those communities to help themselves. UM.
Speaker 1: So that's really important. You've got the education component, you've
Speaker 1: got the medicine component, and you have the vector control. Right,
Speaker 1: so there's also spring that goes on. Yeah, So medicating
Speaker 1: UM infected individuals just one part of it. We also
Speaker 1: are getting in there with anti larval um like larval
Speaker 1: sides actually that that put in the water. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, figure out what portions of a river are
Speaker 1: really prime activity, So they'll go in, they'll they'll look
Speaker 1: at the rate of the water flowing through there, like
Speaker 1: measure it with like little propeller gadgets. And then once
Speaker 1: they figure out the areas to treat, treat it with
Speaker 1: this environmentally friendly anti larval yeah yeah, and then that
Speaker 1: that will attempt to kill it off. And then you know,
Speaker 1: you'll look at how the larval populations have dropped off
Speaker 1: in those areas, like like looking at typically these larva
Speaker 1: will end up crawling all over like the crabs that
Speaker 1: live in there in the water. Pull out the crabs,
Speaker 1: examine the crabs and uh. And we're seeing some of
Speaker 1: these areas that were previously hotbeds for the larval infestations
Speaker 1: that it's just just not there anymore. Yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: cutting down, medicating people, cutting down on where it grows.
Speaker 1: Um also just a lot of things like making sure
Speaker 1: people were wearing more clothes in areas where they're exposed
Speaker 1: to the black flies, protective clothing, protective gear. Uh. Just
Speaker 1: sort of any little additional, seemingly petty advantage you can
Speaker 1: take can make a huge difference when you add everything up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And UM, I wanted to touch on elimination versus interrupted
Speaker 1: transmission too, because these are two different terms obviously that
Speaker 1: mean very different things. UM. So for for interrupted transmissions,
Speaker 1: but this has been happening with a lot of um,
Speaker 1: the different countries that the car Center is involved with. UM.
Speaker 1: This interrupted transmission basically happens when treatment coverage of an
Speaker 1: area UH is attained and there are no new incidences.
Speaker 1: Elimination is a term that that you cannot actually use
Speaker 1: until an area or a country has maintained no new
Speaker 1: cases during a three year period called the surveillance period,
Speaker 1: and that's zero infections, and that's when you know that
Speaker 1: that is eliminated. Of course, World Health Organization is also
Speaker 1: involved in UM in terming the country or an area
Speaker 1: eliminated of this disease. But I guess with the larger
Speaker 1: story here is that this is a huge wind for
Speaker 1: these countries and for these areas. Colombia has interrupted transmission
Speaker 1: UM and has gone three years without any new cases
Speaker 1: and it's waiting to be certified as eliminated. Ecuador, which
Speaker 1: is another area that the Carter Center is focusing on,
Speaker 1: has interrupted transmission, has also gone nearly three years without
Speaker 1: any new cases and is also being prepared to be
Speaker 1: sort of fight is eliminated. Mexico and Guatemala have interrupted
Speaker 1: transmission and they are in their surveillance period now. Venezuela
Speaker 1: and Brazil still have endemic areas UH, most notably the
Speaker 1: area that crosses their shared border. Sort of makes sense,
Speaker 1: right UM. And then the Carter Center assists five African
Speaker 1: countries where they've interrupted transmission in some areas but not
Speaker 1: entire countries. A little bit more complex UM. Some countries
Speaker 1: have elected to go from nationwide elimination or to go
Speaker 1: for nationwide elimination, and others have not. And I think
Speaker 1: that is important, UM, that that aspect right there, that
Speaker 1: you have to have the country on board with us
Speaker 1: as well or the area on board with us to
Speaker 1: really decide, Hey, are we gonna as a community go
Speaker 1: for complete elimination. Yea. So now one of the big
Speaker 1: challenges is just keeping the fight going, just continuing to
Speaker 1: to keep it in people's minds. This is an issue
Speaker 1: that we need to continue to to fight, to u
Speaker 1: to eradicate, continue to treat, and just not let the
Speaker 1: guard down until UM, until it's it's adequately dealt with
Speaker 1: in the all of these affected areas. Yeah, because as
Speaker 1: you said before, like to stop that disease cycle, you
Speaker 1: have to have at least eighty of eligible people in
Speaker 1: the endemic area taking the medicine each year until the
Speaker 1: parasite disappears. And I read I believe it was in
Speaker 1: Guatemala Um. I may be wrong on that location, but
Speaker 1: in the Carter Center they were talking about the Carter
Speaker 1: Center website, they have this great story about how they're
Speaker 1: trying to really keep the education component of this UM
Speaker 1: in people's minds for for all generations. And they were
Speaker 1: talking about school aged kids who in their courtyard have
Speaker 1: um black fly pinatas and that's again part of the
Speaker 1: conversation of keeping it in their minds. If this is
Speaker 1: a very real danger, this is something that we need
Speaker 1: to think about so that those generations will continue to
Speaker 1: part of the culture. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, um. And
Speaker 1: I should also mention too that there is um and
Speaker 1: independently produced film called Dark Forest Black Fly that is
Speaker 1: tracking the efforts of the Carter Center and its partners
Speaker 1: to wipe out river blindness in Uganda, and that should
Speaker 1: be out later this year. But you can check out
Speaker 1: a clip on the Carter Center's website. Yeah, do you do.
Speaker 1: Go to the Carter Center's website. You can just do
Speaker 1: a Google search for Carter Center. If you want to
Speaker 1: be a little more specific, do Carter Center River Blindness,
Speaker 1: or just do a search for river blindness and you'll
Speaker 1: find the Carter Centers website on this you also visiting
Speaker 1: that website, you'll find an easy way to donate if
Speaker 1: you would like to donate to to that particular cause.
Speaker 1: It's a great cause and I highly recommend supporting it.
Speaker 1: And uh oh and also if you want, if you're
Speaker 1: just a little more curious about the organism itself, well,
Speaker 1: they have plenty of information about it, but the results.
Speaker 1: There's also a little discovery show that came out a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago called Monsters Inside Me. And if
Speaker 1: you're just fascinated by grotesque, harmful parasites, um, this is
Speaker 1: the show for you. It's it's it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: a disturbing and dark show. It's a documentary but with
Speaker 1: a lot of dramatized scenes of individuals encountering parasites, becoming
Speaker 1: infected by parasit. It's all based on unreal stories. But
Speaker 1: they have a segment in one of the episodes it
Speaker 1: deals with with river blindness. Um. What has to do
Speaker 1: with an American chimpanzee Um? Yeah, and um specialist who
Speaker 1: comes back to the States infected and has to deal
Speaker 1: with the ramifications. But but check that out if you're
Speaker 1: you're interesting in learning just more about the the strangeness
Speaker 1: of this creature. Yeah, and I hope you guys enjoyed
Speaker 1: learning about this. More of the Carter Center part of this,
Speaker 1: and not just the Carter Center part, but the sort
Speaker 1: of humanitarian efforts that are going on. We can often
Speaker 1: we talk about parasites who talk about how deadly they
Speaker 1: are or how fascinating they are. But this is so
Speaker 1: incredible to know or to remember that there's this whole
Speaker 1: shadow effort and it's not even really shadow, but it's
Speaker 1: not something that we don't talked about all the time.
Speaker 1: There's a huge effort going on to to help people
Speaker 1: and to um to get them educated, in to to
Speaker 1: get that sort of health care that they need, and
Speaker 1: to stop the cycles of this that are making a
Speaker 1: huge difference in their quality of life. So it's pretty
Speaker 1: cool stuff. All right, Well, let's call the ropeot over
Speaker 1: here and do a couple of listener mails before we
Speaker 1: sign out. First of all, I want to say that
Speaker 1: we heard from Adam again UM, the Chief Happiness Officer
Speaker 1: who's traveling around the world and sentis the cool hats,
Speaker 1: which we still need to get a photo of. I
Speaker 1: know one of these days, like this week is blown
Speaker 1: by UM. But anyway, he wrote in to tell us
Speaker 1: what he was up to now. He was in Hope,
Speaker 1: Hi men City. Uh and he also managed to pick
Speaker 1: up and he sent some pictures of the money. But
Speaker 1: he also says also Robert, I suppose this is the
Speaker 1: Asian red Bull that you talked about many times in
Speaker 1: the show. It was available here in Singapore. I didn't
Speaker 1: try it and included a picture of it. Uh. We
Speaker 1: had a listeners in a picture of this this beverage
Speaker 1: in before and it's hard for me to place because
Speaker 1: it looks like it's in cans now. And when I
Speaker 1: had it a few years ago in um Um in Thailand,
Speaker 1: it was it was in like a little medicine looking bottle,
Speaker 1: but but it was a red bluel product and it
Speaker 1: was like really crazy intense. So I've I've yeah, So
Speaker 1: I put the call out. It's like for any of
Speaker 1: our listeners who are traveling through East Asia or live
Speaker 1: in East Asia, uh, to to give me their feedback
Speaker 1: on it and see if it's really such a a
Speaker 1: such such an intense beverage compared to its American counterpart um.
Speaker 1: And by intense, it feels as though it alters your
Speaker 1: reality a little bit. Yeah, I just, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: like like it just felt like an enormous amount of energy,
Speaker 1: Like it was like multiple shots of espresso or or
Speaker 1: B twelve or something just really charging and sweeter somehow too.
Speaker 1: We also heard from a listener by the name of
Speaker 1: Robert Roberts and it says Robert, Julie and Company. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's refining responding to our episode on fiction and reality,
Speaker 1: he says The famed comic writer Alan Moore's recent work
Speaker 1: has frequently centered around an investigation of the power of
Speaker 1: fictional reality, has discussed in your recent Fiction Reality Secret
Speaker 1: Master podcast. His Prometheo graphic novel UH novels are clearly
Speaker 1: a simplified exploration of the power of myth and symbolism
Speaker 1: on the human experience. But even more relevant is this amazing, spooky,
Speaker 1: bizarre spoken word performance Snakes and Ladders, which ties in
Speaker 1: the biblical serpent, the discovery of DNA and obscure writer
Speaker 1: author Makin's mourning over the loss of his wife into
Speaker 1: a beautiful exploration of where ideas come from and what
Speaker 1: impact they can have on us. It's quite a dense performance,
Speaker 1: and some of the more complicated elements elude me. Eluded
Speaker 1: me until I read the illustrated adaptation, but it's really
Speaker 1: worth investigating. Thanks for your continued excellent work in the
Speaker 1: field of thought provoking podcasts. Um Yeah, Alan Moore is awesome.
Speaker 1: I encouraged anyone to chuck at his stuff. I actually
Speaker 1: actually have not read or listened to the titles he
Speaker 1: mentioned here, and familiar with Promethea I was. I was
Speaker 1: actually reading a little about it the other day. That's
Speaker 1: the one where we get the weeping gorilla from just
Speaker 1: like a weeping gorilla that shows up and he's, uh,
Speaker 1: he's always been moaning something like I can't get good.
Speaker 1: I thought you men about the weeping girl in the office. No,
Speaker 1: no one, no, Well, if you see a weeping girl
Speaker 1: in the office, and it's probably um some sort of
Speaker 1: crossover from fiction into reality via the metaphysics of Promethea
Speaker 1: um as for snakes and ladders. I don't think I
Speaker 1: actually heard of this one before, though I have read
Speaker 1: some of the fiction of author mockin Um. Unless I
Speaker 1: have my name's crossed the belief he's the guy who
Speaker 1: wrote he wrote the Wind to Go and some really
Speaker 1: weird No, maybe he didn't write When to Go. I
Speaker 1: think he wrote I think you wrote some weird stories
Speaker 1: about Pan, like uh, like sort of early weird tales.
Speaker 1: But but at the center of this is is Pan
Speaker 1: the the half man, half man, and have goat, and
Speaker 1: he's depicted in a very very interesting manner, like a
Speaker 1: dangerous manner. But it's it's really powerful stuff assuming and
Speaker 1: I didn't screw up my names there. But anyway, thanks UH, Robert.
Speaker 1: We always love to hear from people on the podcast
Speaker 1: and also about other bits of media Italian and what
Speaker 1: we're talking about. And finally we heard from Summer in
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, Utah. Summer rights in and UH. She's
Speaker 1: responding to our discussion of how stuff works versus HSW.
Speaker 1: She brought this up because we mentioned on the podcast
Speaker 1: in the past that that even though we say how
Speaker 1: stuff works, when we go to UH to refer to
Speaker 1: the website or website properties and internal emails will often
Speaker 1: put down UH, it just put on h SW to
Speaker 1: simplify things, just three letters. But when you start looking
Speaker 1: at the syllables how stuff works, that's three syllables, H
Speaker 1: s W, that's five syllables, we end up say saying
Speaker 1: hs W though, because we're used to abbreviate it on
Speaker 1: reviating it on paper, so we up abbreviating it in
Speaker 1: our speech. And so she says, I would like to
Speaker 1: offer solution that was adopted at the place where I
Speaker 1: was employed through college. Kennis Warehouse is much longer and
Speaker 1: more drawn out than t W when written, but they
Speaker 1: are the same number of syllables when spoken. Being college students,
Speaker 1: either options seemed to require way too much energy to
Speaker 1: say over and over, so we instead pronounced it t dub.
Speaker 1: It only solves the too many syllable in the letter
Speaker 1: W problem, but it also makes everyone feel slightly more
Speaker 1: street smart. So he recommendation would be for us to
Speaker 1: go with hs dub. Okay, so H s W with
Speaker 1: a four, right, then we can short g it back
Speaker 1: to three. It just all right, we need to send it.
Speaker 1: We need to send a memo out today. Well, I
Speaker 1: think we would have to. We'd probably have to get
Speaker 1: rid of that S and we just change it to
Speaker 1: H dub or h W. I don't know, something, once
Speaker 1: you start down that road, it's a slippery slip. I
Speaker 1: understand I'm thinking of this. I don't know. I'm a traditionalist.
Speaker 1: I'm like an hs dub hs stub. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: we'll give it a trial weekend. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, if you would like to talk about
Speaker 1: anything with us, be at abbreviations and UH be at
Speaker 1: river blindness and its effects on the world. Other interesting parasites,
Speaker 1: parasitic lifestyles, lifestyles, parasitical life cycles, not so much the
Speaker 1: life stuff, but that's another podcast. Yeah. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: have a parasitic lifestyle, let us know about that. We'd
Speaker 1: be interested to know what that can to the stuff.
Speaker 1: And do you have the Bolbock bacteria? Yeah? And how
Speaker 1: is that working out? So? You can find us on
Speaker 1: Facebook and you can find us on Twitter. On Facebook,
Speaker 1: we are Stuff to Blow your Mind. On Twitter, our
Speaker 1: handle is blow the Mind. Look us up there, friend us,
Speaker 1: follow us, interact with us, share stuff with us. Um,
Speaker 1: anything's on the table. Yeah, and do make sure to
Speaker 1: check out the Carter Center's website. UM. River Blindness is
Speaker 1: just one of the many programs UM, but they work
Speaker 1: on and uh please do feel free to send us
Speaker 1: an email at Blow the Mind at Discovery dot com.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
Speaker 1: from the Future. Join How Stuff Work staff as we
Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. M H.