Here's a headline for you — Worse than sex parasite: Sex parasite with virus. Yes, trichomonas (a sexually transmitted parasite that you've probably never been tested for), can actually harbor its own diseases. When infected with a virus — dubbed trichomonasvirus — trichomonas becomes even worse. Kill it, and it releases the virus, which causes inflammation and can actually lead to worse side-effects for infected people. (Via Charles Q. Choi)

  • http://www.facebook.com/HyperionToASatyr Jack Holmes

    Dammit, Maggie–when I read this headline, I was expecting a story about really racist/sexist nesting dolls! This is pretty cool, too.

  • GawainLavers

    I think a little rewriting of Jonathan Swift is in order.  Anyone?

  • Matt Schwartz

    Trichomonas = parasite
    Trichomonasis = an infection caused by the parisite

    • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

      Fixed! 

  • Robert Cruickshank

    Immediately had to google whether there was a canine version, just so I could make a “Yo, Dawg, ..” joke. I think I need to get out more.

  • tsol

    Does it use the term “deniers”?

  • GertaLives

    Nasty enteric bacteria are often nasty specifically on account of the phages (or remnants thereof) they harbor in their genomes. Cholera, too. Not to take anything away from trichomoads, but bacteria kinda have it going on.

  • Culturedropout

    Whew… glad I haven’t had sex with any Russian nesting dolls…

    • EH

      “Note to self…”

  • http://twitter.com/edyong209 Ed Yong

    FWIW, I was going to report on this story, but I contacted two Trichomonas specialists, who both said that the paper is pretty poor, and the conclusions about the virus’s importance aren’t actually justified by their results. So, I dropped the story.

  • KanedaJones

    Maggie, is this a test of the previous post?
    Slut-shaming vagaries about how a certain STD makes all other STDs so much worse, without numbers or specifics, and how proper antibiotic treatment supposedly amplifies inflammation.

    But the giveaway is this:
    “Unlike flu viruses, for example, this virus can’t spread by jumping out of the cell into another one,” said researcher Max Nibert at Harvard Medical School. “It just spreads between cells when they [the hosts] divide or mate.”

    Coded language is obvious here, moreso than usual even.

    –GimpWii