I am just curious about this. How effective is formalin at inactivating HIV, HCV, HBV, TB, etc? Like does formalin kill HIV and HCV immediately or does it take like 24 hours etc? I really can't find anything on Pubmed. I think this is kinda interesting and important since we come into contact with this stuff so frequently. Also I was told that formalin doesn't do anything against prions, which makes total sense.
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Formalin
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I don't think it has immediate effects. I haven't seen any studies but have heard people talk about the best way to do hep C autopsies is to leave everything in formalin for a day or two. So apparently, 24 hrs is reasonable. HIV is probably less. TB is pretty much wiped out in terms of contagion within a few hours unless it is buried within a cavity where formalin is not penetrating.
Gran Turismo said:
Well I had an attending tell me that formalin fixes the HIV virus pretty much immediately. This is one reason alot of institutions won't gross their specimens in fresh. TB and HBV take a little longer I would think, but HCV (since RNA virus) would probably be similar to HIV. And yes, formalin won't do anything against CJD. I looked on pubmed too and couldn't find anything.
Hypothetically, if you were to cut yourself on a completely fixed specimen are the risks dramatically decreased?Zoloft said:
Quick prion disease trivia question:
Which two animal species were infected by a variant of BSE by sharing a common watershed with cattle being used in a US government research project?
Which two animal species were infected by a variant of BSE by sharing a common watershed with cattle being used in a US government research project?
Where was this project located?bananaface said:
It's been awhile since I read the report (which was removed from circulation, BTW). I want to say that it was in Nevada.deschutes said:
What sort of animals live in Nevada? 😕bananaface said:
Lemme guess. Prairie dogs. And lemmiwinks.
deschutes said:
And lizards and snakes!
B
b&ierstiefel
oh i hate it when i'm prairie doggin' or turtlin'. one of the worst feelings in life...usually signifies "go time"...you're a ticking time bomb and either you're going in your pants or somehow, miraculously you'll find a toilet (or a water fountain).
I have never heard this referred to as prairie doggin' or turtlin'. I wonder why it is called that. Or is this an AndyM original? 
What is this "this"? Is it "it"? 😕beary said:
deschutes said:
Sorry, guess I got a little carried away with my pronouns.Why is desperately having to poo called prairie doggin'?
Maybe I don't want to know.
lemmiwinks? 😕
No one has guessed the animals correctly. They are not small animals.
No one has guessed the animals correctly. They are not small animals.
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b&ierstiefel
no. deep down inside you DO wanna know. and thanks to me, you will be enlightened.beary said:
Why is desperately having to poo called prairie doggin'?
Maybe I don't want to know.
think about it...when you really gotta go and your rectal vault has reached maximum capacity, of course a portion of poo is gonna poke out and say "hello, how are you doing today? it's time to free willy...let's go!" this is similar to how a prairie dog pokes his/her head out of the ground or how turtle's head pokes out from the shell to greet you.
AndyMilonakis said:
Ahh, I see. Thanks.
That makes sense I guess.
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b&ierstiefel
see, that was a good laugh. now you must share this information with your labmates and bring joy and laughter into their day tomorrow.beary said:Ahh, I see. Thanks.
I got to this part and thought you were talking about a prairie dog pup presenting breech.AndyMilonakis said:
AndyMilonakis said:
I will! Tomorrow is my last official day in the lab. 🙁
I am determined to hang on to my desk and bench space though because I continue to live under the delusion that I am going to get all kinds of experiments done and manuscripts written in the next year!
B
b&ierstiefel
you really do have to stop sticking prairie dogs up your ass. please, spare your o-ring some grief.deschutes said:
I will go to bed - and when I wake the sun will have risen on my Last Day Ever as a IM clerk.beary said:
Issues:
No discharges, no admissions.
Plan:
Leave at 5:30pm.
B
b&ierstiefel
yeah keep dreamin'...when you're on call admitting some kid with rotavirus-induced mudbutt, you ain't gonna have time for that.beary said:
Horses.... and zebras.bananaface said:
deschutes said:
Congrats deschutes!!
A bright pathology future lies ahead!
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b&ierstiefel
and then you will go out, party, get trashed, etc. this will probably be one of your best weekends.deschutes said:
AndyMilonakis said:
Ugh... Hopefully I do not acquire rotavirus-induced mudbutt myself!
deschutes said:
buffalo.... and wildebeest.
When I was little, I loved wildebeest because I thought their name was pronounced "wild beasties."
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b&ierstiefel
yeah...cuz then you'll be wishing that you could be prairie doggin'beary said:
Wash. Hands. Always.beary said:
It is your only defence against licky drooly stickies.
Oh, and try not to breathe.
deschutes said:
Thankfully I already practically have OCD about washing my hands. I bet that on peds this habit will become even more pronounced. 🙄
For some reason that reminds me of Ramona Quimby. And big sister Beezus. 🙂beary said:
No. But you are getting closer.deschutes said:
Bison... and camels?bananaface said:
You win with deer and elk/chronic wasting disease. Scrapie has been around for centuries. We seem to have created CWD. We suck! There are 2 suspected cases of transmission to humans.njac said:
Yeah supposedly it was picked up by the native deer and elk like 2 years after some BSE infected cattle being used for experiments had peed in the water supply. That does not make me want to live anywhere near a cattle farm, given the lack of a species barrier. Hooray for urban sprawl!
Yeah I read some papers on it in an infections disease class on it last year. Those papers disappeared from the CDC database and the agencies involved are no longer releasing related information. You know the public would freak the hell out about it if the media got wind of it.
bananaface said:
yeah we used to ship out our CWD samples but we've just gotten the stuff to test it ourselves - I totally want to ask our head pathologist about this. Then again, he is an old cwoboy who gives me **** for buying anything organic. Particularly organic meat products, but stuff like this makes me even more sure of farmers who know where their cows have been and what they eat.
Well, for a long time "organic" was an unregulated phrase. I can see why some people have stayed pessimistic. You are probably ok with beef as long as you don't eat any brain, spinal tissue, or marrow (ie: avoid ground stuff) We have no clue where our beef cattle have been in this country, organic or non. No one gave a rip about record keeping before the Mabton case, as BSE was viewed as entirely a European problem. If you are really worried, eat more chicken. There is a species barrier that prevents us from getting prion diseases that affect chicken and sheep. But, who the **** eats mutton in the US?njac said:
I heard talk of ~1/4 of "alzheimer's" patients really having prion related disorders. Anyone else hear about that?
Alzheimer's is a diagnosis of exclusion, so the Dx is only as good as the efforts taken to exclude everything else. Prion disease is possible (though I am guessing not probable) - many things can mimic Alzheimer's. 1/4 seems a little high to me, but then again I am not a pathologist... yet.bananaface said:
This was supposedly from post-mortem data, just something mentioned in class as an aside. It's one potential reason for nonresponse to Alzheimer's meds.
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b&ierstiefel
It seems like some clinicians are trigger happy to jump on Alzheimer's as a diagnosis, even though it is a dx of exclusion. I mean, think about it. There are many things that can make you go "dehhhhhh" and Alzheimer's is only one of them.
When you go out drinking you had better get a medic alert bracelet saying you do not have Alzheimer's, Andy, or you are gonna get locked up! 😱
