The international conference on Tularemia is held every three years and the location switches off between somewhere in the U.S. and somewhere in Europe. And unfortunately for this blogger, a U.S. held conference fell right in the middle of her graduate school career. Which means that unless I'm in graduate school for 7 years, I will not have the opportunity to attend a Tularemia conference in Europe. Guess that means I better discover something interesting so I can convince my PI to send me to some other conference that will be held in Europe. Or I'll just have to hang out here for 3 more years. The next conference is apparently going to be held in Croatia, so it is tempting.
The 7th International Conference on Tularemia was held at a ski resort (in September) in Breckenridge Colorado on the 100th anniversary of the first isolation of Francisella tularensis. (If you are a little fuzzy on tularemia and Francisella and would like to know more, check out the brief intro to both at the end of this post). It was interesting not being at or even near an academic institution and made comparisons between Harvard and other graduate schools/programs a little difficult. Anyway, here are my top 10 musings from the 7th International Conference on Tularemia:
1. 9600 ft is really high.
The town of Breckenridge is at 9600 ft. That's over 4000 feet higher than Denver. It's basically the two mile high city. After flying into Denver and then driving to Breckenridge, my lab mates and I experienced fatigue, dehydration, fuzziness in the head, and general weirdness. Thankfully all of these symptoms went away after two days, plenty of sleep, lots of water, and jolly ranchers*.
2. Foxes are like raccoons in Colorado.
Instead of gross raccoons running around getting in to garbage cans in Breckenridge, there are adorable foxes.
3. Tularemia is a bigger deal in Europe.
Quick fun fact: Martha's vineyard has the most cases of tularemia in the U.S. But to get back on track, you don't hear of many cases of tularemia in the U.S., but it is more common in Europe. Especially Sweden. Tularemia is also transmitted by mosquitos in many countries in Europe. Gross.
4. Powerpoint presentations are more exciting in Hungary.
Full disclosure: this musing is based on an n of 1.
One of the presenters talked about trends in the emergence of tularemia outbreaks in hares in Hungary. The backgrounds for all of his slides were pictures of hares and bloodhounds hunting hares. Although distracting, the slides were amusing, interesting, fun, and kinda disturbing.
5. Papers were waaay more interesting about 100 years ago.
Apparently there is an early paper on tularemia that describes the symptoms of the disease in great detail. I tried to find this paper to share with everyone, but I wasn't able to. It's a gem though. It starts off with the author describing in the first person how he received a specimen (a dead rabbit) from a state experiencing some sort of epidemic in the rabbit population. The author describes how he unpacked the specimen and handled the viscera. The author then realizes the rabbit died from tularemia and the paper switches to the third person to describe the symptoms of tularemia that the person who handled the viscera (the author) experienced. Apparently there are some really interesting psychological symptoms, but the conference people did not share those with us.
6. My life is unnecessarily hard.
Our lab works on the live vaccine strain (LVS) of Francisella tularensis, but we are still required to work under BL2+ conditions due to an accident with Francisella in another Boston area research institution. You can inject this bacteria into your veins and it won't cause disease, but we have to work with it under a hood in a suite of BL3 rooms. After talking with other people about how annoying Francisella is, I realized that no one else is working with LVS in BL2+ conditions. They still work in a hood, but are able to do so in their own lab space. That would make my life so much easier.
7. Colorado is gorgeous.
There's not much more I need to say on this. The mountains are just incredible. They are really rocky (they are aptly named) and the less steep parts are covered in pine trees, except for patches of aspens that grow within the pine forests. We were lucky to be in the mountains in the fall when the aspens were bright yellow and there were brilliant spots of yellow surrounded by green on the mountains.
8. Fishing in a lake surrounded by mountains at 11,000' is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> a morning of talks.
I'm sure this requires no more explanation, but here are pictures of the lake and the rainbow trout I caught!
9. There is a place called Rocky Mountain Labs.
I don't know much about this place other than that it is in the Rocky Mountains, they study tularemia there, and it is right smack dab in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Like right in the mountains. Sounds like a wonderful place.
10. Scientists are anti-social.
I'm sure this doesn't really come as a surprise to anyone, but I was hoping people might be a little more social at the conference. I only made one friend there...
*Sugar really does help with altitude sickness and the conference organizers provided us with plenty of jolly ranchers to help us adjust.
Brief intro on Francisella tularensis: Francisella is the causative agent of tularemia. Tularemia can manifest in several different ways depending on how you are exposed to the bacteria. The worst form of the disease is the inhalation form and fewer than 10 bacteria can cause potentially fatal disease, if inhaled. Untreated, the inhalation form is fatal about 50% of the time (however, tularemia is easily treatable with antibiotics if caught in time). Because of this, several countries have developed Francisella as a bioweapon.
The inhalation form is not the most common form of the disease. Rabbits are a natural reservoir for Francisella and most people contract the disease when they are bit by a tick that bit an infected rabbit. Although this form of the disease (the ulceroglandular form) is nasty, it is not fatal. If you would like a little more info, check out the most reliable of sources.
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