Dear Diary,
When I arrived at the David J Sencer Centers for Disease Control & Prevention museum, the security guard attempted to scare me into thinking the museum was closed. I almost fell for it until someone came in after me and successfully entered. I chose the CDC museum because it’s a federal government facility and my mother works for the Food and Drug Administration. Visiting the FDA at a young age encouraged me to fall in love with science, particularly learning about bacteria. The FDA had a slogan “Fight BAC” to inspire the general public to practice food safety.
I attempted to schedule a tour at the museum online, however, it was required to have 10 or more participants, so I tagged along with a tour group shortly and attempted to blend in. I saw microbes of viruses and bacteria such as Sin Nombre Orthohantavirus (hantavirus), HIV, AIDS, Zika, Polio, and Malaria. I truly enjoyed the museum. I went with a group of women in my class and we enjoyed it so much decided to make a video to commemorate the experience.
I would’ve loved to choose the guinea worm, but unfortunately, it is not a microbe; I chose to study Legionnaire’s Disease instead. The Legionella Pneumophila a bacterium that causes pneumonia of the lungs and can lead to mild Pontiac fever. I have done previous research on Legionella Pneumophila for a project and it was so intriguing, I had to choose it again. The history behind Legionnaires’ Disease (in a post to come) is so intriguing it will have you glued to your seat.
I planned on writing more in this entry but I’m extremely tired and plan on researching my bacterium more for the next post. I’m about to turn in for the night.
Robyn
P.S. I encountered a blood agar plate of the virus Influenza
After reading about past outbreak events, I am definitely wary of public buildings. It is so interesting that the medium of which the Legionella grew in were all water related. The source of outbreak must have been hard to pin down since it is airborne and symptoms occur quite a while after exposure.
Hey Robyn! I love your page and really enjoyed reading about Legionella. The CDC trip was definitely pretty hilarious. I was actually just learning about this disease in my Aquatic Toxicology and pollution class and had to present on the topic so I was actually able to learn a lot more here in your blog. Wish it was available before I presented. We had to perform a skit about the disease and I chose to use how it transmittable through hot tub access. Yikes.