24 September 2025 (Wednesday) - Parasitology Tutorial

The boss asked if I would spend some time with one of the trainees going over blood-borne parasites. I’m always quite happy to do so… but I can rabbit on and “blood-borne parasites” is a lot to cover… So I suggested that the pair of us looked after the microscopy bench, and periodically we’d break off and have a little training session. Little and often so as not to overload with information.

It worked surprisingly well. 

 

Session One – 9am 

 

We downloaded a PowerPoint presentation I’d prepared and had a little overview of blood-borne parasites that infest humans. 

We then examined some films containing microfilaria 

 

Session Two – 10am  

 

We looked at some pictures of P. falciparum on the American Society of Hematology’s website, discussed them and looked down the twin microscope at thick and thin films containing P. falciparum  

 

Session Three – 11am 

 

We looked at some pictures of P. vivax and P. ovale on the American Society of Hematology’s website and other websites, discussed them and looked down the twin microscope at thick and thin films containing both. 

 

Session Four – 2 pm 

 

We looked at some pictures of P. malariae and P. knowlsei on the Scientists Against Malaria’s website, discussed them and looked down the twin microscope thin films containing P. knowlesi 

 

Session Five – 3.30 pm 

 

We looked at some pictures of trypanosomes and babesiosis on Google images and discussed them.