2004 Life, Science and Health: Diseases Across Species
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THE PARASITE-FREE DIET: Watching What You Eat and Drink
Never mind the South Beach and Atkins Diets, just be sure that you don't picnic in mosquito- or tick-infested woods without proper protection. Malaria and babesiosis could be just around the corner, even in the United States. And, don't blithely assume that the black bear meat given to you by a hunter friend or the steak tartar at an elegant restaurant are free of trichinellosis or toxoplasmosis. Just when you thought your drinking water was safe, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis rear their heads. And no, it isn't due to the beavers you see in your hiking ponds or streams. It's probably other humans or cattle that are responsible for your diarrhea. Ah, what a lovely wedding, and the raspberries were soooo delicious. Then why do you feel so ill? It's those pesky and pernicious parasites again! What you need is the new and absolutely guaranteed Parasite-Free Diet.
Jan Keithly, Ph.D.
Dr. Keithly is chief of fungal and parasitic disease at the Wadsworth Center. She has spent her professional life working in biochemical and molecular parasitology, chiefly with genes and cellular components (organelles) in pathogenic protozoa that can be targeted for drug development. Among her discoveries is a relict mitochondrion, an organelle that may have implications for treating a human diarrheal disease. She combines National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research in human opportunistic infections with her duties as director of the parasitology diagnostic and proficiency testing laboratories for New York State. In this latter role, she has organized molecular techniques and general diagnostic workshops for the Wadsworth Center, and has trained graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Keithly, who received a doctorate in parasitology from Iowa State University and did postdoctoral research in tropical medicine at Rutgers and Rockefeller Universities, is a member of the Fogarty International Research Collaborative Award NIH Study section, and was a founding member of the Association for Women in Science.