4 ms·
> Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised Just because pregnant and immuno-compromised people are in the minority, it's not a big d
by kirubakaran 6mo ago
> Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised
Just because pregnant and immuno-compromised people are in the minority, it's not a big deal?
- sporadicism 6mo agoAdditionally, I can't imagine being blase about gaining parasites just because you're not pregnant or immunocompromised.
- jjtheblunt 6mo agono one is being blase : we're immersed in a biological world teeming with such critters...and we exist through evolutionary adaptation to such. for fun, check out mites around eyelashes, for an innocuous example.
- nkrisc 6mo agoYou’ve likely already got many critters living in an on you.
- darick 6mo agoNot all of those give you brain lesions.
- zdp7 6mo agoThe solution isn't get rid of cats, it's don't lick your hands after changing the litter box. Especially since cat feces isn't the most common source. Under cooked meat is.
- jjtheblunt 6mo agoit's a big deal for some, but not for all individuals, is the point clearly made.
- kirubakaran 6mo agoWell you wrote "Hyperbole and toxoplasmosis go well together". It's not "hyperbole" to care about others, however few they are, even though you yourself might not be at risk, right? But I don't mean to be confrontational. I understand that it is probably annoying to hear toxoplasmosis talked about like it is black death.
- colechristensen 6mo agoA third of the entire human population is infected with toxoplasmosis, in some places nearly every human. If you put humans in a sterile bubble you get a different set of diseases, to a considerably greater degree because your immune system evolved in an environment where you actually got infections.
- kirubakaran 6mo agoBy that logic, we shouldn't be fighting malaria in Africa either. Are there any benefits to toxoplasmosis besides some people finding the vector cute? The alternative isn't living in a sterile bubble.
- colechristensen 6mo agoWithout infections your immune system gets bored and starts attacking you. You need to have something for your immune system to do on a regular basis. Toxo is to a very large degree asymptomatic. You are full of and covered with organisms. Being paranoid about infection isn't helpful to anyone. Ok you don't like cats, that's fine, but are you as passionate about rare steak which is a much more common vector? Malaria... is not asymptomatic.
- duskdozer 6mo agoYou will have plenty of exposure to microbes simply by existing outside of a sealed sterile chamber, and microbes != pathogens. There's no need to encourage exposure to and infection by pathogens, and this idea often results in increased risk or severity of disease. See: "chickenpox party" intentional exposure of children to varicella, putting them at risk of shingles as adults, with the risk increasing the younger they are at the time of infection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis?useskin=vector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis?useskin=vec...
- strathmeyer 6mo ago[dead]
- zdp7 6mo agoYou don't get toxoplasmosis from touching a cat. You get it from touching cat feces and then ingesting it. The most common avenue of infection (in the US at least) is consuming raw or undercooked meat. Considering when my wife was pregnant, she asked our Doctor about it. His recommendation was she should not be the one to clean the litter box. So yeah, avoid cat feces and if you can't wash your hands. We don't need to get rid of cats. Also make sure the meat you eat is cooked properly.
- zdp8 6mo ago"We don't need to get rid of cats. Also make sure the meat you eat is cooked properly." I'd rather not eat cats at all, so cooking them properly doesn't enter into it.