{"id":2786,"date":"2012-06-06T08:04:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T12:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2015-06-04T15:14:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T19:14:35","slug":"a-fun-internet-poll-for-id-nerds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/a-fun-internet-poll-for-id-nerds\/2012\/06\/06\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fun Internet Poll for ID Nerds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over on Medscape, one of my ID heroes, John Bartlett, has a new series<\/a> called, “The Medscape Awards in Infectious Diseases” and it looks like a winner.<\/p>\n

Here’s how it works:<\/p>\n

The Medscape Awards in Infectious Diseases is a new series that will honor the greatest achievements in the field of infectious diseases during 1980-2012. John G. Bartlett, MD, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, identified 8 key categories for these infectious disease awards… Readers will be asked to select the candidate that they believe is most worthy of this title, and then Dr. Bartlett will reveal his personal choice and the reasons for that choice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, I’m game — for two reasons. First, practically anything that has John’s distinctive combination of scholarliness and practicality behind it has got<\/em> to be good; and second, I am a towering nerd when it comes to Infectious Diseases. I admit it.<\/p>\n

So bring on the first category — “Bacterium”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The question is, “What do you believe was the most important discovery of a new bacterium during the time period 1980-2012?”<\/em> Here are the choices, and my thoughts about each one:<\/p>\n