The Perth doctor who swallowed his hypothesis
In the early 1980s most doctors blamed peptic ulcers on stress. Barry Marshall drank a culture of the curved bacteria he and Robin Warren had found in stomach biopsies. A biopsy 10 days later showed gastritis, which then settled. The bug is now called Helicobacter pylori and causes most duodenal ulcers. Marshall and Warren shared the 2005 Nobel Prize.
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Marshall BJ et al. Med J Aust 1985;142:436–9; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2005Prions changed one population's genes
Kuru, a fatal prion disease, spread through mortuary feasts in the Papua New Guinea highlands. Cases fell once the practice stopped. A 2009 study of more than 3,000 people, co-led by Australian researcher Michael Alpers, found that survivors who had been exposed were mostly heterozygous at PRNP codon 129. It also found a new variant, G127V, only in the kuru region and never in people with kuru. It seems to protect against prion disease.
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Mead S et al. N Engl J Med 2009;361:2056–65Your gut can brew its own alcohol
In auto-brewery syndrome, yeasts or bacteria in the gut ferment carbohydrates into ethanol. People can become drunk without drinking. They often deny alcohol and eat a diet high in sugar or carbohydrate. It is more common with diabetes, obesity and Crohn disease, but can happen in healthy people. Cases have even been described in the mouth and the bladder. It is probably underdiagnosed.
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Painter K, Cordell BJ, Sticco KL. Auto-Brewery Syndrome. StatPearls (NCBI Bookshelf)Leprosy does not spread by a handshake
A handshake, hug or shared meal does not transmit leprosy. Spread is linked to prolonged close contact with an untreated person, probably through respiratory droplets—not the casual contact that stigma often targets.
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WHO: LeprosyThe mosquito clue inside a stomach
In 1897, Ronald Ross found a stage of the malaria parasite in a mosquito's stomach after it fed on an infected person. The discovery helped establish the mosquito's role in malaria transmission.
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Nobel Prize: Ronald Ross, biographical factsSmallpox's last natural case
The final known naturally acquired smallpox case occurred in Somalia in 1977. WHO declared the disease eradicated in 1980—a global victory achieved through vaccination and surveillance.
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WHO: SmallpoxRabies can hide behind a paralytic form
Rabies does not always cause the dramatic agitation associated with its name. Its paralytic form causes gradually developing muscle paralysis and can be misdiagnosed, contributing to under-reporting.
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WHO: RabiesSoil microbes helped fight parasitic worms
A soil microorganism isolated by Satoshi Ōmura helped launch a major antiparasitic breakthrough. William Campbell identified the culture's activity against worms; the resulting avermectin work led to ivermectin.
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Nobel Prize 2015: Avermectin and artemisinin, scientific backgroundPenicillin's Nobel was shared three ways
Penicillin's Nobel recognition was not Fleming's alone. The 1945 medicine prize was split equally between Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Walter Florey for its discovery and therapeutic effects.
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Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945A worm with no vaccine to defeat it
Guinea-worm eradication does not rely on a vaccine or a curative medicine: neither is available. Prevention instead targets transmission through safer drinking water, filtering water and keeping infected people from contaminating water sources.
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WHO: DracunculiasisAn infection can turn eyelashes inward
Repeated trachoma infections can scar the inner eyelid until the lashes turn inward and scrape the eye. This mechanical damage can injure the cornea and cause permanent sight loss.
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WHO: TrachomaSyphilis has a childhood-disease cousin
The bacterium behind yaws is a close genetic relative of the syphilis organism. Yaws mainly affects children in tropical communities and spreads when infected lesions contact minor skin injuries.
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WHO: YawsA weed behind a malaria breakthrough
Tu Youyou's investigation of traditional herbal remedies led her to sweet wormwood. In the 1970s, she extracted artemisinin, a substance that inhibits malaria parasites and became the basis of life-saving medicines.
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Nobel Prize: Tu Youyou, biographical factsPork is not how brain cysts are acquired
Undercooked infected pork can give someone an intestinal Taenia solium tapeworm. Cysticercosis, including brain infection, instead follows swallowing the tapeworm's eggs through faecal contamination.
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WHO: Taeniasis/cysticercosisYou're all caught up
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Explore topicsScrollMed summaries, written in our own words from eTG, ASCIA, the Australian Asthma Handbook and other trusted Australian guidelines, plus "Did you know?" facts from journals and official bodies. Tap the source on any post to read the original. Always check the current guideline and local protocols before clinical use.