Fascinating article. I was glad to see toxoplasmosis mentioned since when it comes to humans I think it’s relegated to being “a cat thing” and solely viewed as

Fascinating article. I was glad to see toxoplasmosis mentioned since when it comes to humans I think it’s relegated to being “a cat thing” and solely viewed as something only pregnant women need to worry about it. I read an article years ago about how there’s a high incidence of toxo in motorcyclists who ended up in the hospital ERs (and had blood tests detecting toxo), which suggests how in humans toxo correlates with reckless behavior and wanting to go fast. Relevant excerpts and links: “Between 30 and 60% of people are infected by T. gondii. But it's less clear that the parasite affects human behaviour. In 2006 Kevin Lafferty of the US Geological Survey in Santa Barbara, California found some evidence of personality changes in people infected by the parasite. So far this is only a correlation, which is far from conclusive. Nevertheless, Lafferty says: "my money is on cause and effect". http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3641 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3641 “Toxoplasmosis is also unusually common in people with schizophrenia, but again it's not clear what that means or how significant it is. ‘Schizophrenia is a complicated syndrome, perhaps with multiple causes,’ says Lafferty. He adds that there are plenty of infected people that don't have schizophrenia, and plenty of people with schizophrenia who aren't infected. ‘Still, I am comfortable in saying that Toxoplasma is a correlated risk factor for schizophrenia.’” http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/%E2%80%8Bjeb.073635 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/%E2%80%8Bjeb.073635 Now what I didn’t know about and am utterly fascinated by is how influenza affects infected human hosts. Holy shit! Including here for those who skipped or just skimmed the article: “ … people given a flu vaccine interacted with significantly more people, and in significantly larger groups, in the 48 hours after being exposed, compared with the 48 hours before. The infected hosts were more likely to head out to bars and parties.“ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2010.06.014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2010.06.014