The CDC’s list of highest priority bioterrorism agents is a short one, with only six pathogens making the cut. Among the more familiar names on the list, such as anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, and viral hemorrhagic fevers, is the topic of today’s episode: Francisella tularensis. Unless you’re a hunter or work with small mammals, you may not recognize the name of this pathogen or the disease it causes - tularemia - let alone the characteristics that earned it a place on the CDC’s list. By the end of this episode, though, all that will have changed. Join us as we explore why this pathogen’s brutal biology makes it a force to be reckoned with, how the history of its discovery has surprising origins in the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and what promises future research may hold for protection against this deadly disease.
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Ep 96 Tapeworm: We encyst you listen
Special Episode: On the Origin of Epidemiology
Ep 95 Tetanus: An inhuman calamity!
Special Episode: Chlamydia, Koalas, and More!
Ep 94 Chlamydia: Double Trouble
Re-Release: Ep 27 Vaccines Part 2: Have you thanked your immune system lately?
Re-Release: Ep 26 Vaccines Part 1: Let's hear it for Maurice
Special Episode: Electricity
Ep 93 Lightning & Other Stories: Power Hour (and a Half)
Special Episode: Epstein-Barr Virus
Ep 92 Multiple Sclerosis: Scarred nerves & skating saints
Special Episode: Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus
Ep 91 Myxomatosis: Down the rabbit hole
Special Episode: Human African Trypanosomiasis & Drug Development
Ep 90 Human African Trypanosomiasis: A lot to unpack
Special Episode: Hep B Stigma & Discrimination
Ep 89 Hepatitis B: Hepatiti, Take 2
Ep 88 Endometriosis: Menstrual Backwash
Ep 87 C. diff: Fighting poop with poop
Ep 86 Typhus: Another lousy episode
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