It was late one night in the lab when a physician from the emergency room came over. She had taken a couple of samples from a patient and wanted to read her own slides. We call it a wet mount when you read slides right after they’re collected. But this particular physician forgot one crucial step.
“Did you see anything in the slides?” I asked. I already knew the answer, but I wanted to see if she would catch on.
“Just a bunch of white blood cells,” she replied. “Nothing significant.”
I then took a saline vial with a dropper and put a drop of the saline on the slide, covered it, and took a look. “Have a look,” I said. She leaned into the microscope and said she didn’t see anything remarkable. “One sec,” I said, and then I tapped the table slightly.
The look on her face was priceless.
Trichomoniasis is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the world, yet many people have never heard of it. As someone who studies infectious diseases, I often find it concerning when an infection that affects millions of people doesn’t get the public attention it deserves. That lack of awareness…