{"id":173,"date":"2008-11-25T08:52:19","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T13:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=173"},"modified":"2015-06-04T15:31:37","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T19:31:37","slug":"coming-soon-a-great-advance-in-tb-diagnostics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/coming-soon-a-great-advance-in-tb-diagnostics\/2008\/11\/25\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Soon:  A Great Advance in TB Diagnostics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An all-too-frequent problem in the ID clinical world is the case\u00a0where tuberculosis is <em>possibly<\/em> the diagnosis, but confirming it is difficult, or impossible.<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2008\/11\/rat11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-178\" title=\"rat1\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2008\/11\/rat11.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"109\" height=\"124\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, in a scientific breakthrough of such magnitude that it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/science\/articles\/2008\/11\/23\/mankinds_new_best_friend\/\" target=\"_blank\">warranted front page coverage<\/a> in our local newspaper, I am pleased to report that we may have a solution: <em>giant rats.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes, giant rats. In a pilot program in Daar es Salaam, rats evaluate saliva samples at a rate of 40 every 10 minutes, signaling with &#8220;unmistakable paw motions&#8221; when they detect a sputum infected with TB.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s a bonus &#8212; they can also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_eAGtAYW6mA\" target=\"_blank\">sniff out land mines<\/a>, in case you happen to need that service too.<\/p>\n<p>No doubt these critters will be showing up in our microbiology labs any day now.\u00a0 I can&#8217;t wait to read the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.osha.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">OSHA <\/a>regulations for their protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An all-too-frequent problem in the ID clinical world is the case\u00a0where tuberculosis is possibly the diagnosis, but confirming it is difficult, or impossible. Now, in a scientific breakthrough of such magnitude that it warranted front page coverage in our local newspaper, I am pleased to report that we may have a solution: giant rats. Yes, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,7],"tags":[274,498,616,683,951],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-infectious-diseases","category-misc","tag-diagnosis","tag-infectious-diseases","tag-microbiology","tag-osha","tag-tuberculosis"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}